A California doctor was sentenced to 2½ years in prison on Wednesday for illegally supplying Friends sitcom star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s drug overdose death in 2023.
Dr Salvador Plasencia, who operated an urgent-care clinic outside Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in federal court in July to four felony counts of illegal distribution of the prescription anaesthetic. He could have faced up to 40 years in prison had he been convicted at trial.
An autopsy found the actor died from acute effects of ketamine and other factors that caused him to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub in October 2023.
Ketamine is a short-acting anaesthetic with hallucinogenic properties. It is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and anxiety but also abused by recreational users.
In the plea agreement, Plasencia admitted to injecting Perry with ketamine at the actor’s home and in a Santa Monica parking lot in the weeks before his death, in exchange for thousands of dollars, and that it was “not for legitimate medical purposes.”
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s television sitcom Friends. - Reu–ers
