- “Friends” actor Matthew Perry died from “acute effects of ketamine,” a coroner ruled in 2023.
- Perry wrote in his 2022 memoir of his experiences with ketamine and how it made him “dissociate.”
- The doctor who prescribed Perry the drug was found guilty in July of ketamine distribution.
A physician, who was found guilty of prescribing Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the “Friends” actor’s death in October 2023, was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison.
Salvador Plasencia, 44, was a physician who ran a clinic in Calabasas, California, when he was introduced to Perry on September 30, 2023, by one of his patients, according to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Plasencia, also known as Dr. P, pleaded guilty to four counts of ketamine distribution in July. As part of his plea agreement, he surrendered his medical license.
He is the first of five defendants to be sentenced.
In the weeks since their first meeting, Plasencia gave Perry and the actor’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, “20 vials and multiple tablets of ketamine and syringes.”
Perry, who had documented his personal struggle with drug addiction in his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” died on October 28, 2023. His death was caused by the “acute effects of ketamine,” a coroner ruled. Perry was 54.
