Matthew Perry Drowned in Jacuzzi
POSTED BY: JAYNEZTOWN
UPDATED: Thursday, April 9, 2026 03:49
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The Friends actor died in a hot tub after being injected with ketamine. But the story appears to be more complex than that.
By Joel Zivot and Brian Malchy | Aug 20, 2024, 1:19 PM
https://slate.com/technology/2024/08/matthew-perry-death-ketamine-plas
encia-friends-actor.html
The pharmacological market is dominated by two classes of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. What is notable about these drugs is their relative ineffectiveness in improving depression symptoms. Worse, they fail to block suicidal ideation and may even increase the risk of suicide. Ketamine is not associated with increased suicidality and is often used in emergency departments on individuals who have attempted suicide or have intense suicidal urges.
Good psychiatrists know when to use antidepressants that will strongly predict success. Melancholic signs predict a higher likelihood of success. The signal-to-noise problem of antidepressant failure is that they are wrongly used for unhappiness or the trauma of existence. Unhappiness is a common and serious concern, but an SSRI or SNRI will not help a patient who is merely unhappy. True medical depression is much less common. The high failure rate of antidepressants may reflect overprescribing and the subsequent medicalization of suffering.
For treatment-resistant depression, doctors may turn to something stronger. Ketamine is structurally like phencyclidine, also known as the street drug angel dust, among many other names, and shares that drug’s ability to cause hallucinations and distorted perceptions. Sometimes, these hallucinations are pleasing and generate feelings of profound insight. At other times, these hallucinations are terrifying—known in the medical lexicon as emergence delirium. Up to 55 percent of patients administered ketamine experience an emergence phenomenon that closely mimics schizophrenia and increases their risk of injury.
Finding the sweet spot between terror and bliss is too irresistible for some users. Case reports of recreational ketamine use by physicians exist. Chronic users also develop a significant tolerance to ketamine without prominent symptoms of physical withdrawal, and cyclical use of very high doses is observed. By accounts, Perry struggled progressively with tolerance, and he sought out ever-increasing dosage in pursuit of the desired effect.
Suffering from ketamine tolerance, Perry asked for increasing dosages, but his clinic doctor refused his requests. Perry found Salvador Plasencia, an internist who went by the nickname “Dr. P.” Plasencia partnered with another physician, named Mark Chavez, who had experience with ketamine. Together, they considered how much to charge Perry to supply him. According to a court-filed document, text messages from Plasencia to Chavez read, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Let’s find out.” . . .
In a report dated Dec. 15, 2023, from the County of Los Angeles Department of the Medical Examiner, Perry’s cause of death was listed as the acute effects of ketamine. This doesn’t seem right. Listed contributing factors include drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid use disorder. If Perry had received ketamine while lying on dry land, he might not have died. Ketamine is not toxic in the way other drugs might be. Opioids cause death because, in an overdose, people stop breathing and they don’t know it. The cause of death is the lack of oxygen.
Ketamine is not an opioid. Some drugs directly cause the heart to stop, and in that case, the drug is more the proximate cause. Even in large and repeated dosages, and all things being equal, ketamine may be harmful, but it’s not predictably deadly on its own. When a critically ill person needs anesthesia, ketamine is commonly chosen because it doesn’t kill. The lack of apparent and established ketamine lethal toxicity may have reduced the concerns of Plasencia and Chavez . This, however, should not clear them of medical wro
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They mocked Matthew Perry as 'Chandler' and a 'moron.' - Los Angeles Times
By Hannah Fry, Richard Winton | August 28, 2024
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-08-28/they-called-him-ch
andler-and-a-moron-matthew-perry-was-exploited-before-his-death-feds-say
In the month before Mathew Perry’s death, a doctor the actor contacted to acquire ketamine called him a “moron” in a text message, according to federal prosecutors.
A dealer who authorities say supplied the drug to Perry referred to him as “Chandler” — the sarcastic yet sweet-natured character he played on the hit television show “Friends,” court documents say.
Federal authorities have depicted in court filings and public statements a scheme in which medical professionals and street dealers exploited Perry, who had been open about his years-long struggle with addiction, to enrich themselves.
Five people — two doctors, an alleged drug dealer known as “Ketamine Queen,” a former film director and Perry’s live-in assistant — have been charged in a conspiracy to distribute ketamine, an anesthetic, to the actor.
Prosecutors laid out a criminal case against the defendants. But experts familiar with addiction treatment say the picture of drug use alleged in court papers followed an all too common path: An addict is desperate for a fix and those supplying the drug are happy to maintain the business.
“People can be victimized because they are really highly motivated to seek that substance and nothing else is going to satisfy them,” said Jessica Borelli, a professor of psychological science at UC Irvine.
Perry was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home on Oct. 28. Authorities later determined he had died from acute effects of ketamine.
U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada said during a news conference this month that those charged in the case “cared more about profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his well-being.”
“Drug dealers selling dangerous substances are gambling with other people’s lives over greed,” he said.
Federal prosecutors said Perry started ketamine therapy at a local clinic, where he had sought treatment for depression and anxiety. Ketamine use for depression is a relatively new therapy, but some medical professionals who spoke to The Times say it shows promising results when administered correctly.
While the most frequently used antidepressants affect serotonin, dopamine and other neurochemicals in the brain, ketamine works on the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) system and can be helpful for treatment-resistant depression. Still, there are risks and the potential for addiction to the powerful drug, said Dr. Robert McCarron, a professor of psychiatry and associate dean of medical education at UC Irvine.
“Ketamine has the potential to harm someone or kill someone if not monitored carefully and used in an approved therapeutic way,” McCarron said, adding that Perry likely didn’t know that taking additional amounts of ketamine outside of therapy could be fatal.
“He didn’t go to medical school. He probably figured it made him feel good and lowered his depression so maybe more was better,” McCarron said.
The American Society of Ketamine Physicians, Psychotherapists & Practitioners has raised concerns about whether Perry was a good candidate for ketamine treatment at all.
“In order to safely continue ketamine infusions with his history of substance abuse, his treatment plan would needed to have been implemented by someone highly knowledgeable and experienced with ketamine as one part of an overall substance abuse treatment program,” the organization said in a statement.
Federal authorities say Perry became addicted to the powerful drug, and when clinic doctors refused to increase his dosage, the actor turned to Salvador Plasencia, an internist who went by the nickname “Dr. P.”
Federal prosecutors allege that Perry’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, worked with two doctors — Mark Chavez and Plasencia — and drug dealers Jasveen Sangha and Erik Fleming to obtain thousands of dollars’ wort
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Dr Chavez has admitted one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
At Friday's court hearing, bail was set at $50,000 (£38,000) with Mr Chavez ordered to surrender his passport and agree not to continue practising medicine.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1k3rjwlx8do
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Bill Maher Reflected on Matthew Perry’s Death on This Week’s “Real Time”
https://www.insidehook.com/television/bill-maher-real-time-matthew-per
ry
Agreed, Bill.
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Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President. 
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Quote:Once again, you are shifting blame from where it belongs, on Perry, to everyone Perry was paying to allow him absolute freedom to be a complete asshole. Here is Maher shifting the blame to doctors when the blame should be on the dead foolish celebrity. The celebrity will always find someone to bribe into providing the fatal dose:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Bill Maher Reflected on Matthew Perry’s Death on This Week’s “Real Time”
https://www.insidehook.com/television/bill-maher-real-time-matthew-per
ry
Agreed, Bill.
“Doctors have killed more rock stars than twin-engine planes,” Maher said, pointing to the deaths of Prince, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Tom Petty. He went on to cite an even more alarming figure: the billions of pills prescribed that have led to overdoses.
There is a far better explanation in the article: Why Matthew Perry Couldn’t Make It
After spending a lifetime battling his demons, the troubled actor was finally on the road to recovery. So how did he lose his way? (Special note for 6ixStringJack who has the same bad philosophy of life as Perry. Perry's goal was freedom to seek pleasure rather than a goal of a meaningful and purposeful life.)
September 20, 2024
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/matthew-perry-deat
h-mystery-1236005910/
Long article ends with a final summation:
“It was toxic,” says Schrank of the motley crew Perry cast around him at the end. “But that’s what they do. Addicts like Perry are going to surround themselves with enablers — assistants who will not draw lines in the sand, sycophantic hangers-on who’ll do anything to be near a celebrity, including get them drugs — and distance themselves from people that will tell them hard truths.”
One of those hard truths, sadly, is that for some people — especially those unlucky enough to be as rich and handsome and famous as Matthew Perry — there sometimes is no help. At the end of his own long, tortured and ultimately doomed recovery journey, that’s the grim conclusion Perry himself appears to have come to.
“Take it from me,” he wrote in his memoir, summing up his experience with celebrity rehab over many long, painful decades. “I’m an expert. I’ve poured millions of dollars into this ‘system.’ Did the money help me, or hurt me? There’s no way I could run out of money doing drugs or alcohol. Does that make it harder? I’m glad we’ll never know.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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No surprise at all that you would take the side of death merchants.
There's plenty of blame to go around.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.
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Quote:6ix, do you remember writing this?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
No surprise at all that you would take the side of death merchants.
There's plenty of blame to go around.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65372&mid=12020
47#1202047
Quote:It is a concise philosophy of life that inevitably causes an early death. Matthew Perry lived by your philosophy. So did those selling him drugs. So does Trump, the guy who is forever cheating on his wives and on his income taxes and lying about both because it makes him feel good.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Because they're just one part of my life of Freedom where I get to do whatever the fuck I want, whenever I want, without the need of ever having to answer to anybody.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Unlike hot tube drownings of celebrities, tobacco and alcohol deaths don't end with jail sentences for sellers of tobacco and alcohol. Perry's cause of death was drowning. If the hot tub had been empty of water, Perry would have awakened after the ketamine wore off.
For comparison: Globally, tobacco causes over 7 million deaths annually, while alcohol was responsible for about 2.6 million deaths in 2019. In the United States, recent estimates place annual deaths from tobacco-related causes at around 480,000 and deaths from alcohol use at approximately 178,000, with both numbers representing a significant global health burden.
Matthew Perry’s Ketamine Dealer Jasveen Sangha Pleads Guilty: ‘She Feels Horrible’
Sangha faces up to 65 years in prison at her December sentencing
By Nancy Dillon | September 3, 2025
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/matthew-perry-ket
amine-dealer-jasveen-sangha-pleads-guilty-1235420569/
The North Hollywood woman dubbed the “Ketamine Queen” by prosecutors pleaded guilty Wednesday to supplying the ketamine that led to actor Matthew Perry’s overdose death in a hot tub two years ago.
Jasveen Sangha, 42, appeared in federal court in downtown Los Angeles and pleaded guilty to five felony charges, including that she ran a stash house out of her upscale apartment and sold four vials of ketamine to another victim, Cody McLaury, in August 2019. McLaury died hours later from a drug overdose.
Wearing a khaki jail jumpsuit and shackles on her ankles, Sangha admitted she knew that the 50 vials of liquid ketamine she was selling to a middleman in October 2023 were destined for use by Perry. “There was no way I could tell 100%, but as far as [Fleming] told me, yes,” Sangha told U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett when asked if she knew Perry was the buyer. “I didn’t know if it was all of [the vials] or some of them, but I knew something was going to [Perry], yes,” she said, standing in court beside her high-powered defense lawyer, Mark Geragos.
Perry’s mother and stepfather sat silently in the courtroom’s back row and did not speak with reporters after the morning hearing. Sangha’s mother sat across the gallery and blew kisses to her daughter as Sangha was led back into custody. At the hearing, Sangha became the fifth and final defendant to be convicted in the high-profile case. Her co-defendants who previously pleaded guilty were two medical doctors, the middleman, Erik Fleming, and Perry’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa.
“It’s a tragedy,” Geragos said of Perry’s death as he spoke to reporters outside the courthouse. “She feels horrible about all of this. Nobody wants to be in the chain of causation, for lack of a better term. So yeah, she feels horrible. She’s felt horrible since day one,” he said.
Geragos declined to describe the plea negotiations, but he said his client “always wanted to take responsibility from day one.” He said Sangha has spent the year she’s already spent in custody engaging in self-improvement programs and volunteering. Still, the criminal case and her incarceration have been “a horrendous experience,” he said.
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Sangha is facing a total maximum sentence of up to 65 years in prison, a fine of up to $2.5 million, and the possibility of a lifetime of supervised release, though she’ll likely receive much less. Her sentencing hearing is set for Dec. 10.
She originally was facing nine counts in her superseding indictment. The other counts centered on a purported conspiracy and the alleged possession of other drugs. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the other four counts at sentencing.
Geragos said he and his co-counsel Alexandra Kazarian plan to call experts at the sentencing hearing who will testify about the drugs in Perry’s system and other factors linked to “causation.” He accused prosecutors of “turning responsibility in this case on its head.”
“I think most people, if you talk to them about this case, their biggest problem with it is: ‘Why is she in
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Oh. It was water that killed Matthew Perry.
I guess he was one of the aliens from Signs. That's a plot twist nobody watching Friends ever saw coming.
Shut the fuck up, Second.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:Reality killed Matthew Perry. He couldn't handle it, starting when he had his first sip of alcohol. 6ix, why did it take decades for you to stop drinking? You should have stopped immediately, much like you would have stopped after your first sip of gasoline then smoking a cigarette. The kaboom followed by your face burning off would have corrected your foolishness. Too bad beer isn't more flammable. There would be fewer alcoholics (fewer of all addictions) if the consequences arrived sooner and unmistakably.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh. It was water that killed Matthew Perry.
I guess he was one of the aliens from Signs. That's a plot twist nobody watching Friends ever saw coming.
Shut the fuck up, Second.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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