Scott Hallion says he was a “full-blown cocaine addict” by the time he was 14. Five years later, he was in prison and heroin entered his life for the first time.
From Rathmines in Dublin, Hallion says he minimised the impact of his drug use for many years. But he now recognises he was in active addiction for a decade, when he reached a crisis point.
“Active addiction is not a nice place,” he says. “It’s dark, it’s hard, it’s lonely. Addiction brought me to places where I never thought addiction could bring me. It made me question life. I tried to kill myself through addiction. It was after that I sought help.”
Now aged 34, Hallion says he completed a 16-month programme to address his addiction in 2021. He remained off drugs for three years but relapsed last year following a bereavement.
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He used drugs again for three to four months before realising he needed help once more. However, he did not want his life to be derailed and that was when he heard of Buvidal.
Methadone is a treatment used for those with an opioid addiction, but requires at least one weekly supervised visit to a clinic.
Users of Buvidal, a long-acting treatment, receive a monthly injection, meaning they do not need to attend a clinic weekly and can resume normal life, which assists in their recovery.
Meghan Lynch, chief pharmacist at the HSE National Drug Treatment Centre on Pearse Street in Dublin, says between 80 and 90 of its patients are on the long-acting treatment at any one time, out of a total of about 530 patients.
“We use it to treat people with mild to moderate addiction so it’s not always suitable for everyone,” she says. “Sometimes patients don’t want to go on it and sometimes it’s not enough for patients to stop their withdrawal.
“So if you have somebody who has very high level of dependence on opioids, they might need methadone. But we have found [Buvidal] is something for people to work towards.”
Dr Mike Scully, HSE consultant psychiatrist in substance misuse and clinical director at Cuan Dara addiction treatment centre, says there is flexibility around the administration of the injection, with patients being able to receive it seven days before or after they are due to.
“You can go on holidays. Whereas if you take methadone, you’ve to go through security, you’ve got to explain, everybody looks at you differently because you’ve got a narcotic drug,” he says.
“Methadone is a challenging medication if it’s diverted, if it gets lost, there is a potential for not good things to happen.”
Following the receipt of additional funding in Budget 2026, the HSE announced it was expanding access to opioid substitution treatment. It is rolling out Buvidal across its network of 82 dispensing and satellite clinics, with a budget of €750,000 for the initiative. The expansion will potentially support an additional 200 patients.
Figures show the number of service users nationally on buprenorphine-based products such as Buvidal increased from 110 in 2017 to 1,212 last year.
[ Cocaine cited as main drug in almost two-fifths of cases needing treatmentOpens in new window ]
For Hallion, he wants more people to become aware of the treatment and for it to be more widely available. He learned of it through a family friend and decided he had “nothing to lose at the time”. That was 10 months ago and he is now working full-time as a general officer at a Dublin hotel.
“At one stage with my addiction, I thought my role on earth was to be a drug addict and be in and out of prison and to be a bad person,” he says.
“But now I’m back in work. I live a normal life. I don’t get cravings, I don’t get sweats, I don’t get aches. I don’t have to come to the clinic daily. My independence was handed back to me the day I chose to go on the Buvidal.”
