Five people, including a licensed physician and an alleged drug dealer, were arrested on August 15 in connection with the death of “Friends” actor Matthew Perry, who died from the “acute effects of ketamine,” according to the Los Angeles County Medical examiner’s office, in October 2023. Perry was found dead in his hot tub after he’d asked his personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, to shoot him up “with a big one” earlier that day, according to the New York Times. The autopsy report showed that the level of ketamine in his blood was equivalent to the amount used for general anesthesia.
Perry had long struggled with substance use disorder and his dependence on ketamine began after deciding to pursue ketamine therapy. When doctors at a local clinic refused to increase his dosage, law enforcement officials said that Perry decided to seek out the drug through other means, asking his assistant to procure the drug illegally. Perry eventually procured ketamine through multiple channels, including a licensed physician who previously ran a ketamine clinic and wrote fraudulent prescriptions for the drug. The case brings up how the line between doctors and drug dealers can be blurred, especially for celebrities and people in positions of power seeking out supplies of pharmaceutical drugs such as ketamine.
In September 2023, Iwamasa started buying ketamine from Dr. Salvador Plasencia, a licensed physician. Dr. Plasencia obtained the supply from Dr. Mark Chavez, who previously operated a ketamine clinic, and had illegally diverted the drug from his clinic, as well as making false representations to a wholesale ketamine distributor, and submitting a fraudulent prescription in the name of a former patient without the patient’s knowledge or consent.
We reached out to the DOJ asking if Perry’s death has sparked a wider investigation into a broader network of licensed medical practitioners supplying diverted ketamine to clients. A DOJ spokesperson responded with no comment.
READ: Psychedelic Exceptionalism Harms People Who Take Antidepressants
In text messages to Chavez, Plasencia discussed how much to charge Perry for the ketamine, writing, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets [sic] find out.” When authorities later requested documents in connection with their investigation, Plasencia provided altered and falsified medical records purporting to show that he had a legitimate treatment plan for Perry.
In October 2023, Iwamasa also began obtaining ketamine for Perry from Jasveen Sangha, a high-end drug dealer also known as the “ketamine queen.” After Perry’s death, authorities raided Sangha’s stash house in North Hollywood and found approximately 79 vials of ketamine, 3.1 pounds of orange pills containing methamphetamine, psilocybin mushrooms, cocaine, and prescription drugs that appeared to be fraudulently obtained. Prosecutors maintain that Sangha knew about the dangers of ketamine because in 2019, she sold the drug to personal trainer Cody McLaury, who later overdosed.
Sangha was described as serving many high-end clients, and on her social media, she appeared to enjoy a lavish, celebrity-adjacent life. Photos on Instagram show her standing next to a private jet with Perla Hudson, ex-wife of Guns ’N’ Roses guitarist Slash, as well as with Charlie Sheen and DJ Khaled, per the New York Post. According to TMZ, Sangha met Perry, as well as Charlie Sheen’s ex-wife Brooke Mueller, at a rehab in Los Angeles.
Sangha faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, while Plasencia faces up to 10 years in federal prison for each ketamine-related count and up to 20 years for each record’s falsification count. Chavez, Iwamasa, and a middleman named Erik Fleming have also been charged with counts of distributing ketamine and face 10, 15, and 20 years, respectively.
