Matthew Perry, star of the hit TV show Friends, urged his assistant to “take a big one” just before his fatal ketamine overdose last year, it has emerged.
The timeline of Perry’s tragic final moments was revealed in court documents after his live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa and five others were indicted on Thursday in connection with the Hollywood actor’s shocking death last October.
On the morning of his death, Perry, 54, allegedly asked his longtime assistant to administer the first ketamine injection of the day at about 8:30 a.m., according to the plea agreement signed by Iwamasa.
Four hours later, Iwamasa injected himself with another pill while watching a movie at his Pacific Palisades home, according to the complaint.
According to court documents, Iwamasa recalled that it was only about 40 minutes later that Perry asked for another injection of ketamine.
“Shoot me a big one,” he told Iwamasa, then instructed his assistant to prepare the hot tub.
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According to the documents, Iwamasa gave his boss his third injection just six hours later and then left to run an errand.
Iwamasa, who had worked for Perry since 1994, returned to his home to find Perry face-down in his hot tub.
At the time of his death, Perry had been undergoing ketamine therapy for several weeks to treat depression.
What you need to know about the hallucinogen ketamine
- Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic, giving patients a sense of detachment from pain and the environment.
- Ketamine makes users feel calm and immobile, but it has also been abused recreationally as a “club drug” and has been used to facilitate sexual assault.
- Ketamine prescriptions have increased in recent years, in part due to celebrity endorsements.
- In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration approved a nasal spray version of the drug, Spravato, for the treatment of treatment-resistant depression.
- Actor Matthew Perry was undergoing “intravenous ketamine therapy” for “depression and anxiety” before his tragic death on October 28, 2023.
The assistant told authorities that he gave his boss at least 27 ketamine injections in the last five days of his life alone, including the final three that prosecutors say resulted in “death and serious injury.”
Iwamasa was indicted along with two doctors, Salvador Plascencia and Mark Chavez, suspected street dealer Eric Fleming and Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles.”
Prosecutors allege that Plascencia and Chavez provided Perry with approximately 20 bottles of ketamine in exchange for approximately $55,000 in cash from September until her death on Oct. 28.
Prosecutors said Iwamasa, who has no medical training, injected Perry with drugs at the direction of Plascencia.
Authorities believe Perry’s final, fatal dose of ketamine was supplied by Sangha.
Plascencia and Sangha are both charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine in connection with Perry’s death.
Fleming, Iwamasa and Chavez entered into plea agreements in exchange for pleading guilty to various charges, including conspiracy to distribute ketamine and conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death.
