Nearly six months after Hollywood actor Matthew Perry’s death from an accidental ketamine overdose, the Los Angeles Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration have started an investigation to determine how he obtained the medication, police sources informed the Los Angeles Times.
Perry, who portrayed Chandler Bing on the popular TV sitcom from 1994 to 2004, passed away at 54. He was found unconscious in his Los Angeles home’s swimming pool in October 2023. Having battled drug addiction for decades, including ketamine and related serious health issues, he had reportedly been sober for 19 months before his death.
The autopsy revealed that Mr. Perry’s death was also due to drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine
Nevertheless, an autopsy indicated ketamine levels in his blood akin to those administered during general anesthesia. According to The Guardian, “At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression.”
Furthermore, the autopsy revealed that Perry’s death was also due to drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine, a medication for opioid addiction, which he openly discussed in interviews and his memoir. His death was ruled accidental, with no evidence of foul play. Nonetheless, law enforcement officials are investigating how he had substantial amounts of ketamine in his system. The Guardian cited TMZ, stating that the investigation focuses on who supplied Perry with the drug and under what circumstances.
A few days before his death, Perry underwent ketamine infusion treatment for anxiety and depression, as per the medical examiner. Importantly, the ketamine found in his system during the autopsy was not from this treatment since his last known dose was a week and a half earlier. According to AFP, ketamine is illicitly used as a recreational drug due to its numbing and hallucinogenic effects. While doctors also use it as an anesthetic, researchers are investigating its potential for mental health treatment.
The 54-year-old described in his memoir how he had used ketamine daily at certain points during his addiction struggles. He mentioned the drug alleviated his pain and aided his depression. “Has my name written all over it — they might as well have called it ‘Matty’. Taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel. But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel,” he wrote in “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing”.
