Post: Matthew Perry was given 27 shots of ketamine in his final days, according to a new documentary. ‘There needs to be accountability,’ prosecutor says.

Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy is a new documentary on how the Friends star died in 2023 of a ketamine overdose and the investigation into how he obtained the drug. (Peacock) Matthew Perry ’s overdose death will forever be the one that was a gut punch.

A new Peacock documentary, Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy , looks at the Friends star’s rise to fame alongside his lifelong battle with addiction. While his 2022 best-selling memoir, Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing , suggested that the worst was behind him in his dependency on drugs and alcohol , the 54-year-old actor died from a ketamine overdose on Oct. 28, 2023.

The hourlong special digs into the final months and days before he drowned in his hot tub, and describes how he used the dissociative anesthetic, which is used off-label to treat depression and also recreationally for its hallucinatory effects. The resulting criminal investigation resulted in five arrests .

According to the documentary, Perry received 27 shots of ketamine in his final three days, outside his legitimate ketamine therapy for anxiety and depression . Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case before stepping down in January, said that the five people arrested — including two physicians, an alleged drug dealer and Perry’s live-in personal assistant — are “people who should have known much better.”

Two of them — Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who allegedly administered the drug to Perry in a parking lot and called the star a “moron” in a text, and Jasveen Sangha, the so-called “Ketamine Queen,” who allegedly provided Perry’s fatal dose — pleaded not guilty. They both head to trial on March 4 in Los Angeles. The three others — Dr. Mark Chavez; Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa; and an acquaintance, Erik Fleming — pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors. They await sentencing in April (Chavez and Fleming) and May (Iwamasa).

Here’s what we learned in the documentary. Doctors were driven by ‘greed,’ prosecutor said

Plasencia allegedly obtained fraudulent prescriptions for ketamine from Chavez in September and October 2023. Estrada said they were motivated by “greed,” charging Perry $55,000 […]

Matthew Perry was given 27 shots of ketamine in his final days, according to a new documentary. ‘There needs to be accountability,’ prosecutor says.