Rodrigo Duterte’s statements suggest he’s battled an addiction to painkillers

RODRIGO Duterte is best known for his brutal crackdown on drugs in the Philippines. But the Punisher has first-hand experience with substance abuse.

Rodrigo Duterte is flip-flopping over the question of his reported addiction to fentanyl.

RODRIGO Duterte has once again admitted to abusing a powerful opioid drug.

Addressing a crowd in Davao City on Friday, the controversial Philippines leader admitted that he used the pain relief drug fentanyl, saying it made him feel like he was on “cloud nine”.

For the past two months, the President has been plagued by questions over whether his use of the drug constitutes “addiction”, with ongoing calls for the leader to release his health records.

Mr Duterte, 71, has been dubbed “The Punisher” for his brutal crackdown on drug addicts and criminals in the Philippines.

Police have reported killing more than 2500 people they accused of being drug suspects, while nearly 4000 others have died in unexplained circumstances amid the crackdown.

Amid reports on his painkiller addiction, the leader has been called out on the irony of his drug crackdown.

IS THE PUNISHER ADDICTED TO PAINKILLERS?

In his Davao address last week, Mr Duterte explained that he was prescribed fentanyl due to a severe spinal injury.

He said he was injured in a motorcycle accident three years prior, when he was 68 years old.

“I am perpetually in pain,” he told the crowd, in a video broadcast by Filipino television network ABS-CBN.

“The doctor stopped (prescribing fentanyl) because he got mad. I’m supposed to cut it into four pieces,” he said, suggesting he used the drug beyond the medically-advised dosage.

“More than just the disappearance of pain, you feel that you are on cloud nine,” he said. “Everything is okay with the world, nothing to worry about.”

Mr Duterte has flip-flopped under previous pressure over the extent to which he used the painkiller.

In December last year, he first revealed that he used the drug.

Even then, he admitted his doctor instructed him to stop using it upon learning that he was “abusing the drug” by using more than the prescribed dosage.

Last year, Mr Duterte admitted he used fentanyl to relieve pain.

But the president has denied that he was addicted.

At a subsequent news conference in Singapore, a BBC reporter asked Mr Duterte how he justifies his war on drugs when he himself was “highly dependent on drugs”.

“I’m not an addict,” he responded. “Only when it is prescribed. Addiction is only with regularity, my friend.”

The president said the drug was regulated in the Philippines, with doctors monitoring those who used it to prevent the risk of addiction.

He told the reporter: “When you take it and there’s a monkey on your back, that’s addiction. You know what? I’ll give you an idea, nicotine is an addictive element. It’s more than … worse than the medications you take for your headache.”

Attempting to justify his use of the substance, he said: “You must know that I have a headache, because I had a bad spill and my — And may I show it to you? This is the cause. So, I have intermittent … but I take the (drug), for my migraine.”

He went on to compare it favourably to smoking cigarettes.

“Smoking? That’s far worse. You ask any … it’s far worse than … Nicotine is an addictive form and it has — but since it was there a century, two centuries ago, nobody can stop it.”

DUTERTE URGED TO RELEASE HEALTH RECORDS

Politicians have urged Mr Duterte to undergo a medical examination, and disclose the results to silence questions over his drug use.

“To end this speculation, it would be better if his physician explains how the president manages the pain that he suffers,” his ally, congressman Carlos Zarate said.

Meanwhile Senator Leila de Lima, one of the leader’s most vocal critics, echoed calls for him to disclose his health condition.

“It is not just the illness itself that we should be worried about, but also the impact or side effects that the medications he is taking may have, especially on his lucidity and ability to make decisions with a clear mind,” she said.

Over 6000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Philippines since Mr Duterte implemented his war on drugs.

In a statement, Ms De Lima said his drug use had driven him to “madness”.

“Duterte should stop taking Fentanyl because obviously it has already driven him to madness and to fits of paranoia where everyone he sees is either a drug addict or a drug lord,” she said.

“Mr President, stop abusing drugs so for even one single second you can experience a lucid interval and discover how crazy this drug war witch-hunting has become.

“At least I, whom he recklessly and wrongly accuses as a narco-politician, haven’t taken a single addictive drug in my life, while he who runs amok and froths in the mouth like a rabid animal has the temerity to make up a list, when he should be on the top of that list.”

Senator Leila De Lima is an outspoken critic of The Punisher.

Another critic, Senator Antonio Trillanes, said the Punisher “qualified as a drug addict” based on his admission.

He ended up denying the whole thing, according to the Agence France-Presse.

“Fools, I just made up that story and you believed it,” he reportedly said, in contradiction to his more recent speech in Davao.

There are ongoing concerns for Mr Duterte’s physical health.

He has repeatedly denied rumours that he is suffering from cancer. Last month, it was speculated he visited a cancer hospital in China during a five-day hiatus last month.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella denied the rumours, saying Mr Duterte did not leave the country at that time.

The leader has previously admitted to suffering from migraines, spinal problems and Buerger’s disease, a cardiovascular illness typically associated with smoking.

At the age of 71, Mr Duterte is the oldest president to ever assume the presidency in the Philippines.