Feds investigating source of ketamine in Matthew Perry’s death

Jami Ganz, New York Daily News
·2 min read

Matthew Perry’s death is still under investigation, as federal authorities probe how the “Friends” star got access to the ketamine that caused his sudden death last fall.

Both the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and local authorities have spent months probing where the five-time Emmy nominee — who was open about his lifelong struggle with substance abuse — procured the drug. They are predominantly concerned with who provided it and under what circumstances, law enforcement sources told told TMZ.

Though it’s unclear where authorities are in the investigation, they have interviewed “some key people in Hollywood” with known histories of drug use or abuse in the hopes they might have information leading to whoever provided Perry with the fatal dosage, insiders told the outlet. No arrests have been made thus far.

Perry was found dead in his hot tub in late October. Less than two months later, a toxicology report determined the 54-year-old actor died from the “acute effects of ketamine,” with his death ruled accidental. Drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine — a drug intended to help addicts wean themselves off of opioids — were listed as contributing factors.

Though Perry, who had reportedly been sober for 19 months, had reportedly been undergone ketamine infusion therapy to treat anxiety and depression, it was determined that the fatal dosage “could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less,” per the report.

Perry opened up in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” about those sessions, as well as his relationship to the drug when he’d taken it recreationally.

While “taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel,” the infusions made Perry feel like he was “dying.” He ultimately decided, “Ketamine was not for me.”

There was no evidence of alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroine, fentanyl nor PCP in Perry’s system at the time of his death, per the medical examiner.