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A California court on Tuesday sentenced a doctor who supplied ketamine to “Friends” star Matthew Perry in the months before the actor’s fatal overdose to eight months of home confinement.
Mark Chavez, 55, admitted to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine after prosecutors revealed that Perry had been paying as much as $2,000 per vial for the drug in the weeks leading up to his death in 2023.
The actor was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home.
Chavez, who operated a ketamine infusion clinic near San Diego, was also ordered to complete 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea deal, he surrendered his medical licence.
Court documents showed that Chavez obtained ketamine through a fraudulent prescription and then supplied it to another physician, Salvador Plasencia. Text messages between the two doctors revealed a cynical attitude towards Perry, with Plasencia remarking in one exchange, “I wonder how much this moron will pay.”
Plasencia was sentenced earlier this month to two-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to his role in supplying the drug. He has also given up his licence to practise medicine.
Authorities say at least three other individuals who admitted involvement in supplying ketamine to Perry are due to be sentenced in the coming months.
Among them is Jasveen Sangha, described by prosecutors as the “Ketamine Queen”, who allegedly sold drugs to wealthy clients and celebrities. She faces a possible sentence of up to 65 years in prison.
Perry’s live-in personal assistant and another man pleaded guilty in August to charges of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
The actor’s long battle with addiction was widely known, but his death at the age of 54 shocked fans around the world. A criminal investigation was launched after an autopsy found dangerously high levels of ketamine in his system.
Perry had been receiving ketamine legally as part of supervised treatment for depression. Still, prosecutors say he later became dependent on the drug, which is also used recreationally for its dissociative and psychedelic effects.
Best known for his role as Chandler Bing in the hit sitcom “Friends”, which aired from 1994 to 2004, Perry achieved global fame and fortune. However, he struggled for years with addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.
In his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing”, Perry wrote candidly about repeated attempts at sobriety, revealing that he had undergone detox dozens of times and suffered a near-fatal medical emergency in 2018 after his colon ruptured due to drug use.
