Editor’s note: During the course of a week, issues are covered that might not lend themselves to full editorial comment, but they are worthy of The Sunday Telegraph weighing in – thumbs up, thumbs down or neutral.

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THUMBS UP – To the Biden administration on easing decades-old requirements that made it difficult for doctors to treat opioid addiction using medication is a step in the right direction. New guidelines announced last week mean doctors and other health workers will no longer need extra hours of training to prescribe buprenorphine, a gold standard medicine that helps with cravings. And they no longer have to refer patients to counseling services. Under the loosened guidelines, prescribers will be able to treat up to 30 patients at a time with the drug. U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan led a bipartisan effort to eliminate a waiver for prescribing buprenorphine. “It never made any sense that the law made it harder to prescribe the treatment than it did to prescribe opioids,” she said in a statement last week. “For too long, these burdensome requirements have prevented Americans from getting the treatment that they need.” Hassan said the announcement “is a step forward in removing some of the barriers in accessing medication-assisted treatment.” Buprenorphine helps by moving a patient from powerful painkillers or an illicit opioid like heroin to a regular dose of a legal opioid-based medication.

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THUMBS UP – To the state of New Hampshire, who has scheduled 10 virtual job fairs for May. Starting May 23, New Hampshire is once again requiring that people receiving unemployment benefits be looking for work. That was waived last year during the coronavirus pandemic. Scheduled job fairs include May 6, for veterans; May 11, one for students and the other for students and adult education in partnership with Pinkerton Academy; May 13, construction industry in partnership with ABC NH/VT; May 18, Great North Woods Region and Dartmouth Lake-Sunapee Region; May 19, Seacoast Region; May 20, White Mountains Region; May 25, Lakes Region; May 26, Monadnock Region; May 27, Capitol and Southern Region.

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