In October 2023, actor Matthew Perry died from the acute effects of drugs, with contributing factors including drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine. Investigations revealed that Perry's live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, had been administering ketamine injections to him multiple times daily in the days leading up to his death, despite lacking medical training. Iwamasa, along with two doctors—Dr. Mark Chavez and Dr. Salvador Plasencia—and two others, were charged in connection with Perry's death.
Chapter 1: Who was Matthew Perry and what were his early struggles?
So what really happened to actor Matthew Perry, and why is this doctor facing over a hundred years in prison? Well, it all starts with this kid, Matthew. And Matthew's a teenager during this time, living in Canada, and bro has a problem. He doesn't feel like he's good enough, like he's an outsider who will never be loved, and this is an overwhelming feeling for him.
But one day, when he's a little older, he discovers something that makes that feeling go away. Alcohol. And so Matthew starts drinking regularly. And as time goes on, he starts to grow dependent on alcohol. But it's okay that he's drinking right now because he has a long-term plan. He's gonna become a famous actor one day and fame will make him stop feeling like he's not good enough.
Chapter 2: How did Matthew Perry's acting career begin and rise to fame?
And so he moves to Los Angeles and he starts going on auditions. And he, you know, he gets some stuff. But then in 1994, when he's 24 years old, he's cast as Chandler on the sitcom Friends. And Matthew nails this role. He improvises some of the best lines in the show. You have to stop the Q-tip when there's resistance.
And as you already know, this show is not only a hit, it becomes the biggest show on the planet. So, of course, Matthew blows up and all of a sudden he's a huge celebrity now and people all over the world love him. In fact, this show is so successful, the whole cast goes on to become some of the highest paid actors of all time. making over a million dollars a week.
Chapter 3: What challenges did Perry face with addiction during Friends?
However, even though Matthew has finally achieved everything he wanted, all this fame and money doesn't do what he thought it would do, and he still feels like he isn't good enough. And so he keeps drinking every night, and he does painkillers, and sometimes he does harder drugs, and his addiction starts to get really bad.
In fact, it gets so bad, he films entire seasons of Friends without even remembering filming them, And then one day his co-star Jennifer Aniston comes into his dressing room and she tells him straight up, Matthew, I can smell the alcohol on you. I think you need help. And there he learns that the whole cast is worried about him.
Chapter 4: How did Matthew Perry attempt to overcome his addiction?
And so he starts going to rehab and he attends rehab several times throughout the filming of the series. But even with all that going on, somehow Bro is able to make it through all 10 seasons and the show is still a giant success when it ends in 2004. And nearly 20 years go by and it's 2023 and Matthew is 54 now and he's still battling with his addictions.
And at this point, Matthew's gone to rehab 15 times. He's done weekly therapy. He's attended over 6,000 AA meetings. He spent over $7 million trying to get clean. But somehow, it keeps coming back, along with that horrible feeling. That feeling that he's not good enough. But then, one day, he gets a little hope. Matthew goes to a doctor to get help with depression and anxiety.
And the doctor treats him with a different kind of drug. Ketamine. And surprisingly, this actually works. Matthew starts to get a bit of relief from this awful feeling that he's been having for so long. But here's the thing about ketamine, though.
Chapter 5: What role did ketamine treatment play in Perry's later life?
It can be a dangerous drug, so when it's prescribed, you're supposed to only have a limited amount of it, and you're supposed to use it with a doctor in a clinic so that they can monitor your vitals and make sure that, you know, you don't die. And so Matthew, of course, he does it this way. but ketamine only lasts a couple of hours and he wants to feel it all the time.
And so he's gotta up the dose and take more, every day, multiple times a day. And that is when he meets this guy, who we'll call Dr. P. Dr. P is a local physician and when he meets Matthew, the famous former Friends star, he immediately sees dollar signs. And Dr. P, he has no experience with ketamine therapy treatments, nor does he have any legitimate medical purpose to give ketamine to Matthew.
But he doesn't care. He wants to get paid, allegedly. And so he comes up with a plan to be Matthew's plug, his go-to doctor for ketamine. But Dr. P, he can't get the amount of ketamine he needs, so he enlists another physician to help him get it. This guy, Dr. Chavez. And so Dr. P allegedly goes to Dr. Chavez and he's like, hey, want to take advantage of a rich TV star's drug addiction?
Chapter 6: Who is Dr. P and what was his involvement with Matthew Perry?
And Dr. Chavez hears this and he's like... All right. And so Dr. Chavez starts writing fraudulent prescriptions. And by doing this, he's able to get ketamine for Dr. P. And they start texting each other back and forth about how much they're going to charge Matthew. And Dr. P's exact words in his text, he says, I wonder how much this moron will pay. Let's find out.
And that is a direct quote from Matthew Perry's doctor talking about his own patient. Now for context, a vial of ketamine cost them around $12. Dr. P charges Matthew $2,000. That is a hell of a markup. And so you can see how pretty quickly Dr. P is allegedly making bank off of Matthew's addiction. And so he wants to keep going. Now, obviously, he's a practicing physician.
He doesn't have the schedule to be hanging around Matthew all the time to monitor him while he's on these drugs. And so he teaches this guy to help, Kenny. And Kenny is Matthew's personal live-in assistant. And Dr. P shows Kenny how to inject Matthew so that he can get the high he wants Even though Kenny is just a personal assistant, he has absolutely no medical training.
And so now Matthew is getting these injections at home every day without medical supervision. And one day, as you probably could have predicted, it all goes wrong. Because Matthew is at home. He's chilling in his hot tub. And his hot tub seems to be in his backyard, so it overlooks a nice view. And this is his favorite spot to chill. And this picture is a little dark, but you can see him here.
And here he gets Kenny to inject him with a big shot of ketamine. Then Kenny leaves. He leaves to go run some errands. And Matthew is there all alone. And at some point, Matthew is so high that he unfortunately overdoses and he slowly slips into the water.
Tributes are being paid this morning to the Friends actor Matthew Perry, who has died at the age of 54.
So of course, this is big news, and it blows up, and people are understandably devastated. I mean, he was a huge star in the 90s, and to this day, Friends is still very popular on streaming. And Dr. P, he hears about this news, and he's probably like, oh, sh**. Because he realizes that he's Matthew's doctor, so they're definitely going to blame him.
And then, allegedly, he starts falsifying documents. Like he writes a fake treatment plan for Matthew, and he starts claiming that he gave him much lower doses of ketamine than he actually did. However, the feds, they aren't stupid. Pretty quickly, they figure out that these documents are bullshit, meant to influence their investigation. And so, bam, they arrest him.
Here's what he looks like in real life. And also, bam, they arrest Dr. Chavez. And they end up arresting Kenny, too. And they also arrested two other drug dealers connected to his death. Meanwhile, Dr. P is currently out on bail, and he's awaiting his trial, and he's facing over a hundred years in prison for his role in this.
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