Doctor who sold ketamine to actor Matthew Perry before his death sentenced to 30 months in prison

A United States court this Wednesday sentenced Dr. Salvador Plasencia to 30 years in prison for selling ketamine to actor Matthew Perry weeks before he died of an overdose in October 2023.

The federal district judge of Los Angeles Sherilyn Peace Garnett has ordered immediate preventive detention against this doctor, one of those accused of providing the drug to the star of the television series ‘Friends’ and who must pay $5,600 (more than 4,800 euros) as a fine.

The sentence comes after Plasencia surrendered his California medical license last September and months before pleaded guilty to four counts of illegally distributing ketamine to the actor, according to the US television network CBS.

In his plea agreement, the doctor admitted that approximately a month before Perry’s death, he sold him ketamine for $4,500 (3,860 euros) and hired another doctor, Mark Chavez, to provide him with the doses. Furthermore, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, Plasencia asked this doctor to continue acting in this regard so that Perry would continue demanding ketamine.

Four other people are awaiting sentencing in the same case: Chávez, two of the actor’s former assistants, and drug trafficker Jasveen Sangha, known as “the queen of ketamine,” who pleaded guilty last August to the actor’s death.