{"id":30982,"date":"2024-08-16T01:50:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T06:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=30982"},"modified":"2024-08-16T01:51:06","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T06:51:06","slug":"the-depths-of-matthew-perrys-addiction-6-to-8-shots-a-day-and-55k-for-a-month-of-ketamine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=30982","title":{"rendered":"The depths of Matthew Perry\u2019s addiction: 6 to 8 shots a day and $55K for a month of ketamine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 \u201cFriends\u201d actor Matthew Perry was experiencing an out-of-control ketamine addiction, injecting the drug six to eight times a day,\u2002before his accidental overdose death<\/a>, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five people have been charged<\/a> in connection with Perry\u2019s death, including his personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and one of those accused of providing the drug, Dr. Salvador Plasencia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In court documents filed Thursday, federal prosecutors accuse Plasencia of telling a patient that Perry was \u201ctoo far gone and spiraling in his addiction\u201d the week before he died but that he still offered to sell Perry ketamine through Iwamasa anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perry had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety<\/a>, but it was not the supervised therapy doses that killed him. His last session was more than a week before his death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to prosecutors, Perry had been seeking out unsupervised doses of the controlled substance and had developed an \u201cout of control\u201d dependence on it. Ketamine, an anesthetic with psychedelic properties, is a popular party drug that has recently been found to be a promising alternative treatment for some mental illnesses but carries serious medical risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perry, 54, was found face down in the\u2002heated end of a pool<\/a> at his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28. When he died, the levels of ketamine in his body were high \u2014 equivalent to the amount used for general anesthesia during surgery, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His assistant, Iwamasa, 59, pleaded guilty on Aug. 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing a death and admitted having repeatedly injected Perry without medical training, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court documents laying out Iwamasa\u2019s plea agreement detail the depths of Perry\u2019s addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iwamasa was accused of injecting Perry the day he died at 8:30 a.m. and again at 12:45 p.m. while Perry was watching a movie, the agreement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cApproximately 40 minutes later, Victim M.P. asked defendant to prepare the jacuzzi for Victim M.P. and told defendant, \u2018shoot me up with a big one,\u2019 referring to another shot of ketamine,\u201d the document said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After he injected Perry with the third shot in six hours, Iwamasa went to run errands, the documents say. He found Perry face down in the pool when he returned to the home, according to the plea agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iwamasa told authorities he began injecting Perry roughly a month before he died, after Perry was introduced to Plasencia around Sept. 30. He alleged that Plasencia sold Perry liquid ketamine, as well as ketamine lozenges, according to court documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plasencia, 42, was arrested Thursday in Southern California and charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. He pleaded not guilty in court Thursday afternoon. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal prosecutors said Plasencia taught Iwamasa how to administer the drug through intramuscular injection, even though Iwamasa had no medical experience or education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perry then instructed Iwamasa to stay in touch with Plasencia to buy more vials. The plea agreement recounts almost daily communications between Plasencia and Iwamasa to arrange more purchases in the next two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 12, about two weeks before he died, Perry had a ketamine infusion with a doctor, but Plasencia was still contacted after the treatment for more, according to prosecutors. According to the plea agreement document, Plasencia agreed to meet at Perry\u2019s home later that day and administered a \u201clarge dose of ketamine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perry had a bad reaction to that dose, it said. His blood pressure spiked, his body began to \u201cfreeze up,\u201d and he could not talk or move, prosecutors said. Plasencia left additional vials of ketamine for Perry at the house, despite Perry\u2019s adverse reaction to it, prosecutors alleged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to prosecutors, the next day Perry instructed Iwamasa to obtain more ketamine from a different supplier, an acquaintance Iwamasa had previously gotten into contact with named Erik Fleming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fleming, 54, pleaded guilty on Aug. 8 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perry paid Plasencia \u2014 through his assistant \u2014 at least $55,000 for ketamine in the month before he died, Iwamasa\u2019s plea agreement says. Fleming was paid about $12,000 for two deals, one of them just days before Perry died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another doctor was arrested Thursday and charged, and a third person has agreed to plead guilty in connection with Perry\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perry, who rose to fame on the beloved sitcom series \u201cFriends,\u201d was vocal about his addiction issues. He said in a 2022 interview on the \u201cQ with Tom Power<\/a>\u201d podcast that he could not watch \u201cFriends\u201d because he could tell by his weight what substance he was abusing: alcohol, opiates or cocaine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perry wrote in his memoir that he \u201cshould be dead\u201d after years of addiction and that his sobriety gave him purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, Perry was given the Champion of Recovery award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. The same year, he converted his Malibu residence into a sober-living home that operated for two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said this for a long time: When I die, I don\u2019t want \u2018Friends\u2019 to be the first thing that\u2019s mentioned,\u201d Perry said\u2002the year before he died<\/a>. \u201cI want [helping people] to be the first thing that\u2019s mentioned. And I\u2019m going to live the rest of my life proving that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 \u201cFriends\u201d actor Matthew Perry was experiencing an out-of-control ketamine addiction, injecting the drug six to eight times a day,\u2002before his accidental overdose death, prosecutors say. Five people have been charged in connection with Perry\u2019s death, including his personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and one of those accused of providing the drug, Dr. Salvador Plasencia. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[5679,6677,23762],"class_list":["post-30982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-actor","tag-drug-addiction","tag-matthew-perry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30984,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30982\/revisions\/30984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}