Matthew perry drug addiction

Millions of people worldwide were left devastated by the death this year of 54-year-old Matthew Perry, the Friends star famous for bringing wise-cracking Chandler Bing to life. A global superstar, recently sober with an autobiography on the bestseller lists, it looked like his troubled past was behind him. So the world was especially shocked and saddened to learn of his untimely death by apparent drowning.

This week, medical officials in Los Angeles, have confirmed that his drowning was more complex than initially suspected. Toxicology reports have indicated that two drugs were in Perry’s system at the time of his death. These were buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid drug addiction, and ketamine, sometimes referred to as special K or horse tranquilliser.

Given Perry’s well-documented addiction issues to opioid painkillers, his use of buprenorphine was not a surprise. But why was he taking ketamine?

Ketamine works by acting on receptors in the brain and, since its synthesis in the 1960s, has been used in veterinary medicine and also as a surgical anaesthetic in humans.

Following signs that ketamine might affect user mood, it was investigated for its potential role in treating depression and anxiety. Today, users can be prescribed ketamine for these conditions, but usually only after other antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications have failed.

The medical officer in LA specified that Perry was being legally prescribed infusions of ketamine to treat depression and anxiety. They did note, however, that given the time since his last dose, it was unlikely that the ketamine in his bloodstream was from his prescribed infusions. No other reason was offered as to why he would have had ketamine in his system so close to the time of his death.

In addition to finding drugs in his body, Perry was also listed as having heart disease. Ketamine can cause an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, so it is not surprising to hear from the medical examiner th

Last fall, the death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry was met with a collective howl of grief.

Now, with the arrest of five people charged with involvement in the ketamine overdose that killed him, that howl should turn to one of anger.

According to U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, two doctors, Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez, allegedly worked with Jasveen Sangha, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen,” to supply Perry with the drug, which Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, injected into the actor several times on the day of his death.

Ketamine, once known as the party drug Special K, is a sedative that many doctors now use to alleviate depression and treat substance abuse. Law enforcement officials said Perry, who began supervised ketamine treatments for depression and anxiety at a local clinic and became addicted to the drug, subsequently sought outside sources for it; the amount of the drug found in his system at the time of his death was far greater than prescribed amounts, so high that it acted as general anesthesia would.

The defendants, Estrada said during a news conference Thursday, systematically provided Perry with dangerous amounts of the drug: They “took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction to enrich themselves” and were “more interested in profiting off Mr. Perry than caring about his well being.”

At 54, Perry was a beloved figure. Long known for his ability to land a one-liner with a style that was both comedically ruthless and deeply human, he was also admired for acknowledging his own failings and vulnerability. For months before his death, he had been promoting his best-selling memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” which chronicled, in excruciating but often darkly humorous detail, his years-long and physically catastrophic battle with addiction and his subsequent journey toward sobriety.

After so many years of self-destructive beh

As much as the late Matthew Perry wanted to be a successful actor, he also craved the fame that came along with it. “There was steam coming out of my ears, I wanted to be famous so badly,” the actor admitted to The New York Times in 2002. “You want the attention, you want the bucks, and you want the best seat in the restaurant.”

That desire came true when Perry landed the role of the witty and sarcastic Chandler Bing on Friends in 1994. “The part of Chandler leapt off the page, shook my hand, and said, ‘This is you, man!’” he told Entertainment Weekly in 1997.

The ensemble sitcom—starring Perry alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer—couldn’t have come at a better time for the Ottawa-raised actor who had previously starred on a string of failed comedies. “I desperately—desperately—needed the money,” he once said.

Once he landed Friends, his financial problems were solved. During the first season, the six cast members made $22,500 an episode, which grew to $75,000 by Season 3 and eventually $1 million per episode in Seasons 9 and 10. Along with that came the popularity he dreamed of. “I was on Friends from age 24 to 34. I was in the white-hot flame of fame,” he said. “The six of us were just everywhere all the time.”

Catch Up with The Gang

Despite being the source of so much laughter for tens of millions of viewers, Perry’s private life was no laughing matter. Behind the scenes, he was harboring a dark secret. “From an outsider’s perspective, it would seem like I had it all,” he said. “It was actually a very lonely time for me, because I was suffering from alcoholism.”

His addiction to alcohol and drugs cost him millions of dollars, months spent in rehab, and even memories from his most famous role. Perry eventually began taking back control of his life and helping other addicts, too. But ultimately, he couldn’t

Matthew Perry's stepfather has said the Friends actor "felt like he was beating" his years-long struggles with addiction before his death in October.

"But you never beat it, and he knew that too," Keith Morrison said.

Perry, who openly spoke of his alcohol and substance misuse, was found unresponsive in his hot tub, at age 54.

An autopsy report listed the effects of two drugs - ketamine and buprenorphine - as well as coronary artery disease and drowning as causes of his passing.

The report also said Perry had been "reportedly clean for 19 months". But he was also said to be in the midst of a ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety.

Mr Morrison, who married Perry's mother Suzanne when her son was 12 years old, said that raw grief from the loss nearly five months ago is with him every day.

"It's with you all the time," he told NBC broadcaster Hoda Kotb on her Making Space podcast. "And there's some new aspect of it that assaults your brain, and it's not easy."