Matthew Perry's Death Being Investigated Over Acute Ketamine Effects: Police

Nearly six months after Hollywood actor Matthew Perry died from an accidental ketamine overdose, the Los Angeles Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration have launched an investigation to understand how the actor procured the medication, police sources told the Los Angeles Times.

Mr Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the hit TV sitcom from 1994 to 2004, died at the age of 54, having been found unconscious in a swimming pool at his house in Los Angeles in October 2023. He had struggled for decades with addiction to drugs, including ketamine, and related serious health issues, but had reportedly been clean for 19 months prior to his death.

However, an autopsy revealed that his blood had amounts of ketamine comparable to those given during general anaesthesia. As per The Guardian, it said, "At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression." In addition, the autopsy revealed that Mr Perry's death was also caused by drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid addiction that he freely addressed in interviews and his memoir. The death was declared an accident, and there was no proof of foul play.

However, law enforcement officials are currently investigating how the actor got significant amounts of ketamine in his system. The Guardian quoted TMZ as saying that the investigation is focused on who provided Mr Perry with the drug and under what conditions.

A few days before his death, Mr Perry received ketamine infusion treatment for anxiety and depression, according to the medical examiner. Notably, the ketamine discovered in his system during the autopsy was not from the procedure since his last known injection was a week and a half ago.

Notably, according to AFP, ketamine is illegally used as a recreational drug for its numbing and hallucinogenic effects. The drug can also be used by doctors as an anaesthetic, and researchers are exploring its use as a mental health treatment. The 54-year-old wrote in his memoir about how he had relied on using ketamine daily at points during his battles with addiction. He said the drug eased his pain and helped with depression.

"Has my name written all over it -- they might as well have called it 'Matty'. Taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel. But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel," he wrote in "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing".