A California physician has become the first person sentenced in the overdose death of Matthew Perry – a man who spent half a lifetime trying to outrun the same demons the medical system claims to understand. Dr. Salvador Plasencia, once trusted with a license to heal, will now spend 30 months in federal prison after admitting he repeatedly supplied ketamine to a patient whose vulnerability was an open secret.
Perry had spoken publicly for years about depression and addiction. The struggle was not hidden, not subtle, not something a doctor could plausibly miss. But according to federal investigators, Plasencia saw an opportunity rather than a responsibility, and chose profit over the oath framed on his office wall. Text messages revealed him calling Perry a “moron” while simultaneously arranging deliveries, gauging how much the actor might pay next. When Perry’s family faced him in court, they didn’t describe a dealer masquerading as a doctor. They described a betrayal: a man who had every tool to help their son, and used none of them.
In the courtroom, as his own mother cried behind him, Plasencia apologized to the judge, to Perry’s family, to the idea that he was ever the kind of doctor people believe in. He said he wanted to raise his young son “right.” He did not explain how a child is meant to understand that his father treated addiction by fueling it.
Prosecutors made clear the scale of the operation. Plasencia injected Perry with ketamine in his home… and once, in the parking lot of an aquarium, a surreal detail in a case built on indifference. He taught the actor’s assistant how to administer doses and sold the pair enough vials and syringes to stock a small clinic. Over just two weeks in 2023, he provided twenty vials of ketamine, lozenges, and supplies, all while Perry was already receiving legal, supervised treatments for depression.
The doctor was not alone. Four others – another physician, Perry’s assistant, and two people who supplied the fatal dose have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. The federal investigation revealed an entire underground chain of people who recognized Matthew Perry’s illness not as something to treat, but something to monetize. Authorities described one supplier, the so-called “Ketamine Queen,” as running a drug emporium out of her Los Angeles home.
Perry’s parents told the court that their son had been planning a “third act”, a late-life return, a recovery he’d fought for many times before. But recovery depends on at least one person in the room saying no. In this case, everyone who should have said it chose to say yes.
Plasencia surrendered his medical license after his arrest. The Hippocratic oath survived. His career did not.
