A doctor accused of illegally supplying ketamine to the Friends star Matthew Perry before his accidental overdose death last year plans to return to his medical practice as soon as this week.
Dr Salvador Plasencia’s attorney confirmed to NBC News that the physician plans to resume practicing at the urgent care clinic he operates in Calabasas, a city in the San Fernando valley in Los Angeles county.
Last week, Plasencia pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and was released on a $100,000 bond. A judge overseeing his case ruled that he must display a sign on the door of his clinic informing potential patients of his pending court case.
Plasencia’s patients are also required to sign a form asserting that they understand the allegations against him and consent to treatment on every visit.
Prosecutors claim that Perry was injected with ketamine at least 20 times in the days before his death from intoxication and drowning in a hot tub in October of last year. In the hours before his death, he had been injected three times.
On the final occasion, Perry allegedly directed his assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, to “shoot me up with a big one” and get the hot tub ready. The assistant gave Perry the dose and left the home to run errands, the papers say. When he returned, Perry was facedown in the water.
Prosecutors allege that Plasencia provided ketamine to Iwamasa. He is also accused of giving injections of the drug to Perry himself and teaching the assistant how to give them.
Perry had been undergoing ketamine treatments to treat depression but is believed to have sought alternative sources of the drug when the clinic involved began to restrict doses. Prosecutors said the actor had been obtaining the drug illegally outside his scheduled doses as part of an “out-of-control” addiction.
The drug is popular as an alternative treatment, with users extolling a sensation of going down a rabbit hole into an egoless state.
Iwamasa pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing a death and of administering injections without medical training. According to prosecutors, Perry had a scheduled ketamine infusion with a doctor on 14 October, two weeks before he died, on 28 October.
On that day, the assistant had contacted Plasencia for more of the drug and the doctor agreed to meet at Perry’s home and administered a “large dose of ketamine”. But Perry had a reaction to the additional dose and his body began to “freeze up”.
According to Iwamasa’s plea agreement, Plasencia left additional vials of ketamine for the actor at his home. But Perry wanted more, and instructed Iwamasa to contact another supplier.
Court-released texts appear to show that Plasencia received ketamine from another physician charged in the case, Dr Mark Chavez, who previously ran a ketamine clinic. Chavez is alleged to have submitted a fraudulent prescription for ketamine for Plasencia to pass along to Perry.
Iwamasa has said he bought about $55,000 worth of ketamine in the month before Perry’s death from multiple sources including, prosecutors allege, Plasencia, the “ketamine queen” Jasveen Sangha, Chavez and drug broker Erik Fleming.
One one occasion, Chavez allegedly sold Plasencia at least four vials of liquid ketamine and ketamine lozenges for $2,000.
In a September 2023 text to Chavez, Plasencia described his visit to Perry’s home as being “like a bad movie”. After a visit to the actor’s home a month later, Plasencia wrote to Chavez: “[If] today goes well we may have repeat business.”
“Let’s do everything we can to make it happen,” Chavez allegedly replied.
Plasencia and Chavez also discussed how much to charge Perry, according to court documents. “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia texted Chavez. Chavez allegedly replied: “Let’s find out.”
