KUALA LUMPUR – Los Angeles police are investigating how “Friends” star Matthew Perry obtained a high dose of ketamine that is deemed to have caused his death nearly seven months ago.
The Los Angeles Police Department, in a statement, announced the continuation of its probe together with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Postal Inspection Service, Reuters reported.
The presence of ketamine was in the conclusion of an autopsy report that was released in December, which said Perry died from the drug’s “acute effects”, combined with other factors that caused him to lose consciousness and drown in the jacuzzi he was in at the time of his death on October 28 in his Los Angeles home.
The autopsy report noted ketamine in Perry’s body “at dangerously high levels, well within the range typically associated with general anaesthesia used in monitored surgical care”.
However, his last known exposure to ketamine was during therapy for depression and anxiety a week and a half before his death.
Low doses of ketamine were administered as part of an infusion therapy and should have left his body by the time of his death.
The autopsy report stated that the high levels of ketamine found in Perry’s system would have been introduced after therapy.
Police are now investigating how Perry obtained and consumed the drug, with no needle marks found on his body.
Perry, who died at 54, is best remembered for the role of the often sarcastic Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s sitcom Friends, which ran for 10 seasons, with him in all 234 episodes.
Behind the scenes, Perry dealt with addiction to drugs and alcohol, going in and out of rehab over the years, but had been sober for 19 months prior to his death, according to media interviews with people who knew him. – May 22, 2024