Matthew Perry's doctors were 'seeking a huge payout' by providing actor with ketamine, reveals DEA chief
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The unscrupulous doctors who were providing Matthew Perry with ketamine were “seeking a huge payout” from the actor, says the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) head.
The DEA chief Anne Milgram recently appeared on ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday, August 18, where she discussed the five individuals charged in the ‘Friends’ actor’s death with Margaret Brennan.
Milgram shared that the doctors who were arrested - Dr Salvador Plasencia and Dr Mark Chavez - were “seeking a huge payout” from the actor, per The Wrap.
DEA chief Anne Milgram castigates doctors responsible for Matthew Perry’s death
“They charged him around $50,000 over the course of one month to supply ketamine,” said Anne Milgram referencing Dr Salvador Plasencia and Dr Mark Chavez, who were held responsible for providing the actor with fatal doses.
Both the doctors were arrested on Thursday, August 15, with Chavez agreeing to enter a plea deal with prosecutors on the same day.
Milgram further equated ketamine abuse via a doctor with the early stages of the opioid epidemic. She added, “So in the case of Matthew Perry’s death, we announced charges against the five individuals who we believe are responsible for that.”
“And again, what happened there is it started with two unscrupulous doctors who were violating — we charged with violating their oath, which is to take care of their patients — and instead supplying Matthew Perry with enormous quantities of ketamine in exchange for huge amounts of money,” stated Milgram.
She continued, “And then it switched to the street where Matthew Perry was buying the ketamine from two drug traffickers on the streets of Los Angeles.”
“And so this, unfortunately, is a tragic work that we have seen — thinking back to the opioid, the beginning of the opioid epidemic, where many Americans became addicted to controlled substances in doctor’s offices and through medical practitioners that then turned into street addiction as well,” added Milgram.
The DEA chief shared that ketamine is classified as a controlled substance with the Federal Drug Administration regulating it as such.
Milgram explained, “The FDA regulates the medical prescribing of ketamine and so they have approved it as an anesthesia. They have approved it through a nasal spray for the treatment of depression. And so they regulate the medical side of this.”
She explained that the DEA is now focusing on the medical practitioners who are abusing the use of such controlled substances for their own financial gain like what Plasencia and Chavez did with the ‘Fools Rush In’ actor.
She slammed the two doctors saying they “were not evaluating Matthew Perry” as a patient, rather they “were leaving behind vials of ketamine for Matthew Perry to be injected by his assistant.”
Dr Plasencia once emailed Kenneth Iwamasa about Matthew Perry
Indeed, as Anne Milgram said, the five individuals made around $55,000 in cash from Matthew Perry by selling him more than 20 vials of ketamine. Each vial retails at as little as $12.
US Attorney Martin Estrada said during a press briefing on Thursday, August 15, that Dr Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez were charged along with Perry’s live-in assistant Kenny Iwamasa, broker Erik Fleming, and ‘Ketamine Queen’ Jasveen Sangha.
It has been reported that the actor was seeking treatment with ketamine therapy for depression. However, when his regular doctor refused to increase his ketamine dosage, Perry reached out to Dr Plascencia, said DEA administrator Anne Milgram.
Plasencia, after realizing the lucrative situation, once even emailed Iwamasa, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” for ketamine as the actor spiraled out of control.
Just 16 days before Perry's death, Plasencia once injected Perry with ketamine only to witness the actor “freeze up and his blood pressure spike". The US attorney Estrada continued in his briefing, "Despite that, he left additional vials of ketamine for defendant Iwamasa to administer to Mr Perry," reported Variety.
