PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte described using an entire fetanyl patch to relieve his spinal pains as being “in paradise.”
In a TV5 interview, Duterte said he was supposed to use only a fourth of a patch with the opioid painkiller but mistakenly used the whole thing.
“I made a mistake and put on the whole patch,” Duterte said in Filipino. “The feeling was great. You have never been to paradise but I’ve been there. It was like paradise when I used the fetanyl patch.”
Duterte described his level of spinal pain as a six on a scale of 10 when he was given a prescription of the pain reliever, which is said to be between 50 and100 times more powerful than morphine and faster-acting than heroin.
The drug, often prescribed for cancer pain and other chronic ailments, was prescribed to Duterte following a spinal injury from previous motorcycle accidents.
He said, however, that his doctor made him stop using it on learning he was “abusing the drug” by using more than the prescribed patches.
“You know, if you’re lying to me, you better look for another doctor,” Duterte said, quoting his doctor.
His doctor also warned about him about losing his cognitive ability with too much fentanyl.
“He said, ‘Stop it. The first thing that you would lose is your cognitive ability… You are, you know, abusing the drug’,” Duterte said.
At 71, Duterte is the oldest elected President and suffers from daily migraine and ailments including Buerger’s disease, a cardiovascular illness characterized by inflammation of blood vessels usually due to smoking.
The President cited ill health as the reason for skipping events during summits abroad. Duterte has also warned that he said he might not even finish his six-year term.
