Half a year after the death of Matthew Perry from the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are jointly investigating how the "Friends" star got the prescription drug, the Los Angeles Times confirmed.
Perry died at age 54 on October 28, 2023, in a bathtub at his home in Pacific Palisades. Traces of ketamine, which is sometimes used to treat depression, were found in his stomach.
However, an autopsy showed that the level of ketamine in his blood was similar to the level used for general anesthesia.
"With the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood samples, the main lethal effects may have been excessive cardiovascular stimulation and respiratory depression," the autopsy report said.
The autopsy also identified drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine — a drug used to treat addiction, which Perry wrote about in his 2022 memoir — as contributing factors to his death, which was ruled an accident.
However, the LAPD and DEA are now investigating how the actor came into possession of a large amount of ketamine and under what circumstances. According to the pathologist, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusion therapy for anxiety and depression in the days leading up to his death. His last infusion was weak and half the size of the previous one, which means that is not where the ketamine found in his system came from.
In his memoirs, the famous actor wrote about his long-term struggle with addiction, which began when he was 14 and intensified while filming "Friends", from 1994 to 2004. Perry had been clean for 19 months at the time of his death. , and the pathologist reported that no other drugs were found in his system or his home.
According to the pathologist, the beloved actor also suffered from diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which can cause breathing problems and blockage of airflow in the body.
This isn't the first time federal agents have been involved in a celebrity drug death. After rapper Mac Miller's fatal overdose in 2018, police arrested Ryan Michael Reeves for selling fake pills that contained fentanyl. He was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison in April 2022.
Bonus video:
