A doctor has pleaded guilty to illegally distributing the prescription anesthetic ketamine to the late Friends actor Matthew Perry.
Salvador Plascencia, a California doctor, who was charged in connection with the actor's death, pleaded guilty to four counts of the illegal distribution of the drug. Plascencia who entered this plea in a district court in LA, could face up to 40 years in prison when sentenced, according to prosecutors.
The doctor is one of five people who have been charged over the death of Perry, who died in October 2023.
He admitted to injecting Mr Perry with ketamine at his home, and in a Santa Monica car park in the weeks prior to his death and that this was not for legitimate medical purposes. He also obtained the drug from another doctor, Mark Chavez from San Diego.
Last October, Dr Chavez pleaded guilty of conspiring to distribute the drug to Mr Perry. He is one of three co defendants who have issued guilty pleas. None of them have been sentenced so far.
It was also confirmed that a fifth defendant, Jasveen Sangha, who has been described as a drug dealer by authorities, was also accused of supplying the drug to Perry. Ms Sangha is also reportedly known by customers as the "Ketamine Queen". However, she has pleaded not guilty, ahead of her trial next month.
Matthew Perry was 54 years old when he died from a drug overdose in 2023, he had always publicly acknowledged his decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as the sarcastic Chandler Bing in the sitcom, Friends.
