Federal courtrooms rarely strip excuses down to their bones, but during the sentencing hearing for the death of Matthew Perry, they came awfully close.
Perry died in October 2023 from the acute death of ketamine. This outcome didn’t involve mystery or medical nuance: Licensed doctors broke rules they understood, ignored risks they were trained to recognize, and treated a powerful drug like a side hustle.
Former California physician Salvador Plasencia received two and a half years in federal prison for illegally distributing ketamine and left additional doses with Perry’s assistant. Prosecutors presented text messages in which Plasencia discusses pricing and access rather than dosage limits or patient safety.
There’s no need for expert testimony to recognize reckless conduct when it appears in writing. Plasencia gave up his medical license, ending a career that he dismantled himself.
On that same day, Dr. Mark Chavez avoided prison and returned home under house confinement, after admitting to supplying ketamine through false prescriptions and illegal diversion. He never met Perry, but he knew exactly how the drug would be used.
Chavez cooperated early with investigators, and courts reward cooperation even when the underlying behavior shows poor judgment. That leniency unsettled many people who see the outcome rather than the courtroom strategy.
Both doctors ignored their training; ketamine requires controlled settings, monitoring, and restraint. The drug depresses breathing outside those limits, along with disrupting heart rhythm, and rapidly raises the risk of overdose.
Every physician knows those dangers, and supplying ketamine for unsupervised use crosses ethical lines before it crosses legal ones. Prosecutors emphasized that no medical justification existed for how Perry received the drug.
Court filings revealed that Perry’s regular doctor placed limits on ketamine treatment, while Plasencia chose to bypass those limits rather than respect them. That decision mattered; medicine depends on boundaries. Doctors don’t exist to help patients override safeguards; when a physician hunts for alternative supply routes, professional judgment has already collapsed.
Some people watching the proceedings struggled with the difference in the sentence structure: One doctor went to prison, while the other didn’t. Federal law separates direct patient involvement from upstream supply and places a heavy weight on cooperation. Courts follow rules when outcomes feel unsatisfying: What can’t be excused is the shared failure that put ketamine into Perry’s hands in the first place.
Fortunately, Lady Justice isn’t done with the case. Perry’s personal assistant faces years in prison after admitting to injecting ketamine despite lacking medical training. Another supplier, known publicly as the “Ketamine Queen,” pleaded guilty to multiple distribution charges and faces decades behind bars. The network, prosecutors argued, was deliberate, not accidental.
Matthew Perry’s fame didn’t cause his death. Bad decisions did. Licensed physicians ignored training, restraint, and responsibility. The courts meted out punishment unevenly, but the moral failure remained constant.
Doctors aren’t dealers, but when they act like ones, people die.
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