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A California doctor who supplied ketamine to Friends star Matthew Perry has been sentenced to 30 months in prison in the US. The actor was 54 when he died from a ketamine overdose in 2023, after years struggling with addiction and depression.
Dr Salvador Plasencia was one of five charged in a US federal investigation into how Perry acquired the anaesthetic drug through an underground supply network in Hollywood.
The actor’s family asked the judge to impose a lengthy prison sentence, calling Plasencia the “most culpable” of the five people charged. They talked about their struggle to understand why he had repeatedly supplied Perry with drugs.
Perry’s mother said Dr Plasencia had abused his position, an accusation which the doctor admitted. He told the court: “I failed myself. There is no excuse. I can’t undo what’s been done. I know that. I should have protected him, as his mother said. I’m just so sorry.”
Plasencia had pleaded guilty to four counts of distributing ketamine. The charges carried a maximum of 40 years in prison, although prosecutors had asked for a sentence of three years.
The four other people charged in the case – including another doctor, his assistant and two people who supplied the ketamine dose that killed Matthew Perry – have also pleaded guilty and are set to be sentenced in the coming months.
Best known for playing Chandler Bing in Friends, the sitcom star had spoken publicly for years about his mental health problems and drug addiction.
Jane Hill presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Peter Bose in Los Angeles.
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