Aninvestigationwas opened after theFriendsstar was found dead in a hot tub on October 28, 2023, after reportedly drowning due to aketamine overdose.
HighlightsMultiple arrests including a doctor and several dealers were made in Matthew Perry’s overdose investigation.Ketamine found in Perry was not prescribed and was in doses used for general anesthesia.Law enforcement seized electronic devices to find out who supplied Perry with ketamine.Perry’s had been using ketamine to fight depression but his history with opioids made him vulnerable to addiction.
The search warrant included text correspondence betweenMatthew Perryand his dealers, which detailed the price of the substance, place of origin, and the methods through which the actor would get it.
Actress Brooke Mueller, Charlie Sheen’s ex-wife, was also signaled as a suspect in theinvestigationback in June 2024, but she is not connected with the arrests.
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Multiple arrests have been made in connection with Matthew Perry’s ketamine overdose death
Image credits:mattyperry4
Autopsy records reveal that the actor, who was 54 at the time, died due to a combination of drowning, coronary artery disease, ketamine, and the presence of buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid addiction.
According to the DEA, Ketamine is a hallucinogen with dissociative and anesthetic effects, creating a feeling of detachment from pain. It was initially approved for usage on animals in the 60s, with human usage being accepted in the 70s.
As the documents explain,Perry’s deathwasn’t the result of just one particular substance. It was a combination of various medications that made him unresponsive, allowing him to drown.
“We use ketamine frequently in the emergency department as an anesthetic because of its safety profile,” said Angelique Campen, an emergency room doctor at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, toCBS.
“There are now uses of ketamine for depression given in clinics. Typically it doesn’t stop your breathing like opioids and other anesthetics would, but it can be very dangerous when used recreationally.”
Ketamine is distributed in powder form. Users can then dissolve the substance for injections or drink it, as well as leave it as is and snort it or smoke it.
Campen believes that the dissociative aspects of the drug are particularly attractive to people who have struggled with addiction in the past, as it provides a similar sensation of a “trip” that other drugs cause.
“He was put in a trance state, so he slipped under the water and drowned,” she said. “The ketamine in and of itself doesn’t stop your breathing, but it can keep you from waking up if you are submerged.”
Perry, who confessed to being addicted to opioids, was particularly vulnerable to the side effects of Ketamine, which experts warn is especially addictive to people with a history of substance abuse
Various studiesconcluded that ketamine administration showed meaningful decreases in depression scores for the group given ketamine over the group that received a placebo.
Image credits:NBC
The drug also acts rapidly, which can lead people in pain to seek it in desperation.
“Instead of waiting for an antidepressant medicine to hopefully provide some relief over the course of weeks, people who are suffering under the crushing weight of depression can start to feel the benefits of ketamine within about 40 minutes,”Harvard Publishingexplains.
Despite being effective, experts warn against several side effects, many of which are particularly dangerous to people with a history of addiction.
In his 2022 memoir,Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry revealed he was battling a severe addiction to alcohol and opioids, specifically Vicodin, which he was given to help treat pain after a 1997 jet skiing accident.
His addiction to Vicodin kept progressing to the point he was taking up to 55 pills a day.
“The main side effects are dissociation, intoxication, sedation, high blood pressure, dizziness, headache, blurred vision, anxiety, nausea, and vomiting,” thepaperreads.
“I feel bad for him.” Netizens lamented the actor’s death and reflected on the lifelong battle with addiction that led him to his death
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