A physician who equipped “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine within the months earlier than he fatally overdosed, musing to a fellow doctor over “how much this moron will pay” for the drug, was jailed in California on Wednesday.
Salvador Plasencia, 44, is the primary of 5 individuals to face justice over Perry’s 2023 demise within the scorching tub of his Los Angeles dwelling.
Plasencia was ordered to serve 30 months in jail for supplying the drug to the actor — who had nicely documented struggles with dependancy — at grossly inflated costs.
In a sufferer affect assertion filed with the courtroom, Perry’s mom Suzanne Perry and his stepfather, Keith Morrison, mentioned Plasencia — who didn’t provide the deadly dose of the drug — had uncared for his responsibility as a physician.
“Matthew’s recovery counted on you saying NO,” they wrote. “Your motives? I can’t imagine. A doctor whose life is devoted to helping people?”
Plasencia’s attorneys, Karen Goldstein and Debra White, who had argued for a probationary sentence, mentioned their consumer, who has surrendered his medical license, was full of remorse.
“He is not a villain. He is someone who made serious mistakes in his treatment decisions involving the off-label use of ketamine — a drug commonly used for depression that does not have uniform standards,” they mentioned after the sentencing.
“The mistakes he made over the 13 days during which he treated Mr. Perry will stay with him forever.”
Another physician, Mark Chavez, pleaded responsible in October to conspiring to distribute ketamine to Perry.
Plasencia allegedly purchased ketamine off Chavez and bought it to the American-Canadian actor at vastly inflated costs.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia wrote in a single textual content message offered by prosecutors.
The 4 different individuals who have additionally admitted their half in supplying medicine to the actor can be sentenced over the approaching months.
They embody Jasveen Sangha, the alleged “Ketamine Queen” who equipped medicine to high-end purchasers and celebrities, who might be jailed for as much as 65 years.
Perry’s live-in private assistant and one other man pleaded responsible in August to fees of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
The actor’s prolonged struggles with substance dependancy have been well-documented, however his demise at age 54 despatched shockwaves by the worldwide legions of “Friends” followers.
A prison investigation was launched quickly after an post-mortem found he had excessive ranges of ketamine — an anesthetic — in his system.
In a plea cope with prosecutors, Plasencia mentioned he went to Perry’s dwelling to manage ketamine by injection and distributed 20 vials of the drug over a roughly two-week interval in autumn 2023.
Perry had been taking ketamine as a part of supervised remedy for melancholy.
But prosecutors say that earlier than his demise he grew to become hooked on the substance, which additionally has psychedelic properties and is a well-liked get together drug.
First airing between 1994 and 2004, the televised comedy “Friends” adopted the lives of six New Yorkers navigating maturity, relationship and careers, drew an enormous following and made megastars of beforehand unknown actors.
Perry’s position because the sarcastic man-child Chandler introduced him fabulous wealth, however hid a darkish wrestle with dependancy to painkillers and alcohol.
In 2018, he suffered a drug-related burst colon and underwent a number of surgical procedures.
In his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” Perry described going by detox dozens of instances.
“I have mostly been sober since 2001,” he wrote, “save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps.”
© 2025 AFP