A friend of Matthew Perry who runs a sober living community said he still supports using ketamine to help addicts — but added that the “Friends” actor made a fatal mistake by using the drug at home instead of under professional supervision at a clinic.
Asher Gottesman, a 50-year-old rabbi and the founder of Transcend Recovery Community, said the dissociative anesthetic known on the street as “Special K” is “extremely important” for those stricken with severe depression, according to SWNS.
The problem, he added, is when it becomes the solution.
“Ketamine being used on a recreational basis or being used afterward on a regular basis is very dangerous,” Gottesman said. “The challenge is [Perry] had an addiction, and he had pain, [and] he had a lot of suffering.
“He ended up using the substance that he was using for good to harm himself because he ended up using it at home,” the rabbi continued. “And I think that was the major danger — had he just used it at a clinic.”
The beloved 54-year-old actor — who for a decade played the witty, sarcastic Chandler Bing on the long-running NBC sitcom — died of a ketamine overdose at his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28, 2023.
He had apparently asked live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa to “shoot me up with a big one” just before he was found dead in his hot tub, floating face down as a movie played in the background.
At the time of his death, Perry had been undergoing weeks of ketamine therapy for depression.
But that seems to have quickly turned into more drug abuse for the troubled actor, who had long battled painkiller and alcohol addiction.
His assistant later told authorities that he’d given Perry at least 27 shots of ketamine during the final five days of his life alone — including the last three, which prosecutors allege led to his “death and serious bodily injury.”
Gottesman, who has been sober since 2008 and runs one of the largest sober living chains in the country, knew Perry socially and expressed sadness at his death, SWNS said.
But he still advocates for strict regulations and oversight of the potentially lethal drug, saying ketamine use requires proper supervision since “substances that can save lives can also kill lives.”
“If we set up a system under which we can protect those that are using it and only give it in appropriate environments, then we can prevent these tragedies.”
Iwamasa was charged alongside two doctors, Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez, as well as alleged street dealer Erik Fleming, and Jasveen Sangha, the so-called “Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles.”
They were accused of bilking thousands of dollars from the actor for vials of ketamine that cost as little as $12, authorities said.
Plasencia and Sangha are both charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine over Perry’s death.
Fleming, Iwamasa and Chavez all copped plea deals in exchange for pleading guilty to various charges, including conspiracy to distribute ketamine and conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death.