Matthew Perry’s Ketamine Overdose Death Exposed in Dark Case of Price Gouging
“Give me a large dose.”
He is said to have requested.
Iwamasa, after following Perry’s instructions and receiving his third ketamine injection, left the house to take care of some errands. When he returned home, he found Perry:
“Had his face submerged in the jacuzzi and was deceased.”
Iwamasa jumped into the jacuzzi, pulled Perry out, and called the police. Paramedics arrived and confirmed the death.
Toxicology tests revealed a large amount of ketamine in Perry’s body. The cause of death was determined to be drowning, excessive cardiovascular stimulation, respiratory suppression due to ketamine, among other factors, and was ultimately ruled an accident.
Doctors Plasencia, Chavez, and Iwamasa had arranged for Perry to receive 20 bottles of ketamine between September and October 2023 for $55,000. The doctors were selling the ketamine, which they had purchased for about $12 per bottle, to Perry for $2,000 per bottle.
As the cost of obtaining ketamine from doctors increased, Perry began to seek cheaper and faster sources, obtaining it from “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha and drug dealer Fleming.
Sangha supplied Perry with approximately 50 small bottles of ketamine over two weeks in October 2023. Sangha reportedly collaborated with Fleming and Iwamasa to sell ketamine to Perry, earning around $11,000 (approximately 1,623,500 yen).
“One of Sangha’s celebrity clients was Mac Miller, a rapper and ex-boyfriend of Ariana Grande, who tragically passed away at the age of 26 from a drug overdose at his home in Studio City, California, in September 2018.
Additionally, there are said to be secret drug trafficking routes used by addicted stars like rock musician Tom Petty, who died from a drug overdose in October 2017. Tom reportedly died from an overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin.” (said a reporter from a women’s magazine)
Perry’s ketamine incident, which highlighted the terrifying nature of drug addiction, has brought to light the existence of drug trafficking routes targeting ultra-wealthy stars something that resonates with the “drug issues” in Japan’s entertainment industry.
Meanwhile, the illegal trafficking of powerful anesthetics and painkillers, which are used for medical purposes like surgery and pain relief, has once again been exposed in the U.S. These include the anesthetic “propofol,” which claimed the life of Michael Jackson, and the opioid painkiller “fentanyl,” responsible for the overdose deaths of both Prince and Robert De Niro’s grandson, Leandro.
In Japan, if medical anesthetics and painkillers more dangerous than marijuana or methamphetamines were to be illegally trafficked and distributed as narcotics, it could lead not just to the arrest of celebrities but also to fatalities. It is evident that stronger countermeasures are urgently needed.
Writer: Ryo Sakamoto (Writer, former head of the Culture and Society Department of Tokyo Sports Newspaper) PHOTO: Reuters/Afro