A California physician who supplied ketamine to F.R.I.E.N.D.S actor Matthew Perry was Wednesday sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, as per reports. This is the first defendant punished in connection with Perry’s fatal overdose.
Dr Salvador Plasencia, a Santa Monica physician and one of five people charged in a federal investigation, was taken into custody immediately after US District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett imposed the sentence. He was also ordered to pay a $5,600 fine.
Plasencia pleaded guilty earlier this year to four counts of distributing ketamine. The charges carried a maximum of 40 years, though prosecutors had sought a three-year term.
Perry, 54, was found dead at his Los Angeles home in 2023 after a long struggle with depression and addiction. Federal investigators traced his access to ketamine through an underground drug network in Hollywood, ultimately charging two doctors, his assistant, and two alleged suppliers.
Perry’s family reportedly urged the court to impose a severe sentence, calling Plasencia the “most culpable” in the case. Appearing in court, Perry’s mother Suzanne Morrison read out text messages in which Plasencia had referred to Perry as a “moron” and speculated about how much money he would pay.
“There was nothing moronic about that man,” she told Plasencia, saying he had failed in the duty he swore to uphold as a physician.
In a letter filed last month, Plasencia told the court he accepted responsibility and said financial strain at his clinic contributed to his decisions, acknowledging that the offer of “large sums of money was appealing” even as he recognised Perry’s “signs of addiction.”
He has since surrendered his medical license and closed his clinic, BBC reported.
According to court records, Plasencia — known to some as Dr P — injected Perry with ketamine at the actor’s home and once in the parking lot of an aquarium in Long Beach.
He also taught Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, how to administer the drug and supplied additional vials for use at home. Prosecutors said that between 30 September and 12 October 2023, he sold Perry and Iwamasa twenty 5ml vials of ketamine, lozenges, and syringes.
Investigators say Perry had been receiving legal, prescribed ketamine for treatment-resistant depression but began seeking larger quantities. Court documents describe how he turned to multiple physicians and to a woman prosecutors labeled the “Ketamine Queen” who ran what authorities described as a “drug-selling emporium” from her Los Angeles residence.
Prosecutors argued that Plasencia and the other defendants “took advantage of Mr Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves”.
The four remaining defendants — including another doctor, Perry’s assistant, and the two alleged suppliers — have also pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced in the coming months.