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Labelled as the ‘Ketamine Queen,’ 41-year-old Jasveen Sangha has been named by United States officials for her alleged involvement in the death of a Hollywood movie star, Matthew Perry.
Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the hit TV sitcom, “Friends” from 1994 to 2004, was found unresponsive in his swimming pool in October 2023. He died aged 54.
“Matthew Perry’s cause of death is determined to be from the acute effects of ketamine,” the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office said in a statement, AFP reports.
Sangha was named alongside four others, including two doctors – Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez; Eric Fleming who acted as a broker, and Perry’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa.
US attorney for the Californian central district, Martin Estrada, stated that Sangha’s North Hollywood home was a “drug-selling emporium,” adding that she was a “major source of supply for ketamine to others as well as Perry.”
Sangha is alleged to have supplied ketamine from her “stash house” since at least 2019, as more than 80 vials of ketamine were allegedly found in a search, along with thousands of pills that included methamphetamine, cocaine and Xanax, BBC reports Friday.
Her home, called the “Sangha Stash House” in the indictment, was where she is alleged to have packaged and distributed drugs.
Estrada noted that the five defendants “took advantage of Mr Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr Perry, but they did it anyway.”
She “only deals with high end and celebs,” the indictment quoted Fleming as saying of Sangha.
According to the BBC, prosecutors claimed Sangha supplied ketamine to Perry after Plasencia initially learnt that he (Perry) was interested in the drug, and sourced it from Chavez, who had previously operated a ketamine clinic.
They alleged that Plasencia also taught Perry’s live-in assistant how to inject Perry with ketamine.
However, the report held that Sangha had, in October 2023, begun supplying Iwamasa with ketamine while prosecutors noted that she knew the distributed ketamine could be deadly.
“These defendants were more interested in profiting off Mr Perry than caring for his well-being,” Estrada added.
Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration. It can distort the perception of sight and sound, and make the user feel disconnected and not in control.
It is used as an injectable anaesthetic for humans and animals because it makes patients feel detached from their pain and environment, BBC reports.
According to investigators, Ketamine ought to be administered only by a physician, and patients who have taken the drug should be monitored by a professional because of its possible harmful effects.
Sangha, of British and American citizenship, while appearing at the court on Thursday, wore a green “Nirvana” sweater when she entered not guilty pleas to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and other charges.
However, she was ordered to stand trial on October 15, 2024, and could face life imprisonment, as she was denied bail after the judge heard of a jet-set lifestyle that included a trip to Tokyo just two weeks after Perry’s death.
According to an AFP report, Estrada said Perry had fallen back into addiction in the autumn of 2023 when he began to be supplied by the two doctors – Plasencia and Chavez.
Over two months, they sold him 20 vials of the drug for $55,000, with each one costing as little as $12, said Estrada.
In one text message, Plasencia, 42, wrote, “I wonder how much this moron will pay… Let’s find out.”
Plasencia, also known as “Dr. P,” who reportedly works in the tony Calabasas neighbourhood outside Los Angeles, knew Perry was spiralling out of control, but carried on.
“On one occasion, he injected Mr. Perry with ketamine, and he saw Mr. Perry freeze up and his blood pressure spike.
“Despite that, he left additional vials of ketamine for (Perry’s assistant Kenneth) Iwamasa to administer,” Estrada said.
Plasencia denied one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, among other charges before he was released on $100,000 bail and ordered to inform his patients of the charges he faces.
He was directed to stand trial on October 8, 2024, and could be imprisoned for up to 120 years.
AFP reports that in 2018, Perry suffered a drug-related burst colon and underwent multiple surgeries.
In his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” he described going through detox dozens of times.
“I have mostly been sober since 2001,” he wrote, “save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps.”
