The DEA is trying to help rural Americans get better access to addiction treatment. Will its plan work?

More types of health-care providers—not just doctors—will now be able to apply to prescribe an effective but potentially addictive medicine for treating opioid addiction, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced Tuesday. The rule change was intended to help more Americans, particularly those living in rural areas that lack doctors, get treated for opioid use disorders. "This action provides more treatment options for addicts in rural parts of the country," the DEA said in a press release. Advocates are hailing the change as a good first step, but note that more is needed to make sure it works as expected. Otherwise, it could languish as a regulatory move that makes little practical difference.The new policy allows nurse practitioners and physicians' assistants to prescribe and dispense buprenorphine, a medication that helps people manage cravings, ward off withdrawal, and keep from relapsing. Buprenorphine plus counseling is considered a gold-standard treatment for addiction to prescription painkillers or heroin. But the medication is itself an opioid. It can create a euphoric high when used improperly, and has some street value. That's why anybody in America hoping to prescribe buprenorphine for addiction has to get a special waiver from the DEA, which, until this week, only physicians could apply for.