The China Mail - Doctor to be sentenced for supplying Matthew Perry with ketamine

Salvador Plasencia, 43, one of five people charged over Perry's death, has admitted to four counts of distribution of ketamine.

He faces up to 40 years in prison as well as a fine that could run into millions of dollars. He will also surrender his medical license.

At an earlier hearing, Plasencia's attorney, Karen Goldstein, said her client regretted his actions.

"Dr. Plasencia is profoundly remorseful for the treatment decisions he made while providing ketamine to Matthew Perry," Goldstein said in a statement.

"He is fully accepting responsibility...acknowledging his failure to protect Mr. Perry, a patient who was especially vulnerable due to addiction."

Plasencia did not provide Perry with the fatal dose of ketamine but supplied the actor with the drug in the weeks before he was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home.

Another doctor, Mark Chavez, pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to distribute ketamine to Perry.

Plasencia allegedly bought ketamine off Chavez and sold it to the American-Canadian actor at hugely inflated prices.

"I wonder how much this moron will pay," Plasencia wrote in one text message presented by prosecutors.

The four other people who have also admitted their part in supplying drugs to the actor will be sentenced over the coming months.

They include Jasveen Sangha, the alleged "Ketamine Queen" who supplied drugs to high-end clients and celebrities, who could be jailed for up to 65 years.

Perry's live-in personal assistant and another man pleaded guilty in August to charges of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.

- Addiction struggles -

The actor's lengthy struggles with substance addiction were well-documented, but his death at age 54 sent shockwaves through the global legions of "Friends" fans.

A criminal investigation was launched soon after an autopsy discovered he had high levels of ketamine -- an anesthetic -- in his system.

In his plea deal with prosecutors, Plasencia said he went to Perry's home to administer ketamine by injection and distributed 20 vials of the drug over a roughly two-week period in autumn 2023.

Perry had been taking ketamine as part of supervised therapy for depression.

But prosecutors say that before his death he became addicted to the substance, which also has psychedelic properties and is a popular party drug.

"Friends," which followed the lives of six New Yorkers navigating adulthood, dating and careers, drew a massive following and made megastars of previously unknown actors.

Perry's role as the sarcastic man-child Chandler brought him fabulous wealth, but hid a dark struggle with addiction to painkillers and alcohol.

In 2018, he suffered a drug-related burst colon and underwent multiple surgeries.

In his 2022 memoir "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing," Perry described going through detox dozens of times.

"I have mostly been sober since 2001," he wrote, "save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps."

K.Leung--ThChM