Half a year after Matthew Perry's death from the effects of the anesthetic ketamine, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have launched a joint criminal investigation to determine how the "Friends" star obtained the drug on a prescription. prescription, law enforcement sources confirmed to the Los Angeles Times on May 21.
Perry died at the age of 54 on October 28, 2023, in a hot tub at his home in Pacific Palisades. According to the Los Angeles medical examiner, traces of ketamine, which is sometimes used to treat depression, were found in his stomach.
However, the autopsy found levels of ketamine in his blood similar to those used under general anesthesia. "With the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood samples, the primary lethal effects would have been from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression," the autopsy report states.
An autopsy also listed drowning, coronary disease and buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid addiction that Perry spoke openly about in interviews and her 2022 memoir, as contributing factors. It was ruled an accident, with no evidence of a crime committed.
However, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency are now investigating how the actor ingested such high levels of ketamine - in his body and in general. TMZ first reported the investigation, which is mostly about who provided the drug to the actor and under what circumstances.
According to the medical examiner, in the days before his death, Perry was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat anxiety and depression. His last known infusion was a week and a half before that, meaning the ketamine found in his system at autopsy was not from the procedure.
In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Bad Thing, Perry discussed his long history of drug abuse, which began at age 14 and intensified under the spotlight during his time on the series. Friends," which aired on NBC from 1994 to 2004. At one point, Perry wrote, he was consuming up to five dozen pills a day. He had been sober for 19 months at the time of his death, according to the medical examiner, who noted that there were no other drugs in his system and that no drugs or drug paraphernalia were found in his home.
The coroner also noted that the beloved actor, who once had a two-pack-a-day habit, suffered from diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a group of diseases that can cause airflow obstruction and breathing problems.
This isn't the first time federal agents have investigated a celebrity drug-related death. After Mac Miller's fatal accidental overdose in 2018, police arrested and charged Ryan Michael Reavis with selling the rapper fake fentanyl pills. In April 2022, he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison./BGNES
