Duterte on fentanyl use: You’ve never been to paradise but I've been there

President Rodrigo Duterte compared the feeling of using an entire fentanyl patch to being "in paradise."

In the course of discussing the state of his health, Duterte said that the level of his spinal pain was at six, on a scale of one to 10, when he was given a prescription for the strong pain reliever.

He said he was supposed to only use a fourth of a patch until he accidentally slapped on a whole.

"Into the six months, nagana ako kasi I have to cut the goddamn thing into four. Isa lang. Nagkamali ako minsan. Nilagay ko ang lahat," Duterte said.

"Maganda ang feeling... You have never been to paradise but I've been there. Parang paradise noong gamit ko," he added.

He said he was reprimanded by his doctor when the latter saw that he was using an entire patch.

"Iyong pain management ng St. Luke's, I won't mention the name... Sabi niya, 'Gumamit ka ng isa?'" Duterte said.

"You know, if you're lying to me, you better look for another doctor. Hindi mo ako kailangan sa buhay mo,'" he added.

Duterte first mentioned his earlier use of fentanyl before business men in Malacañang, also while he was discussing his health.

He said then that his doctor warned 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.  —NB, GMA News