According to AFP, five people who allegedly supplied ketamine to Friends star Matthew Perry in a bid to exploit his drug addiction for profit have been charged in relation to his overdose death, US officials said on Thursday. The actor died at his luxury Los Angeles home last year, sparking an outpouring of grief from fans around the world. "These defendants took advantage of Mr Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves.
They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr Perry, but they did it anyway," said federal prosecutor Martin Estrada. "These defendants were more interested in profiting off Mr Perry than caring for his well-being," said Estrada, the US attorney for the central district of California.
Charges were levied against two doctors, Perry's live-in assistant, a broker and a North Hollywood dealer known as "the Ketamine Queen," who has been linked to the overdose death of another man, reported AFP. Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the hit TV sitcom from 1994 to 2004, was found unresponsive in his swimming pool in October. He was 54.
An autopsy found the cause of his death was "the acute effects of ketamine," a controlled drug the recovering addict was taking as part of supervised therapy. 'Drug-selling emporium' Estrada said Perry had fallen back into addiction in the autumn of 2023, when he began to be supplied by Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez, both doctors. Over two months, they sold him 20 vials o.