LOS ANGELES
A former Santa Monica physician was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in federal prison for repeatedly supplying actor and author Matthew Perry with ketamine, despite knowing Perry’s long struggle with addiction and that an untrained assistant was administering the drug, federal officials stated.
Salvador Plasencia, 44, known to patients as “Dr. P,” received the sentence from U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, who also imposed a $5,600 fine and ordered him immediately taken into custody.
Plasencia pleaded guilty in July to four counts of distributing ketamine and surrendered his California medical license in September.
Prosecutors said Plasencia, who ran Malibu Canyon Urgent Care LLC in Calabasas, knowingly ignored safety standards for administering ketamine — a controlled anesthetic sometimes used off-label to treat depression.
Court records show Plasencia documented in his own notes that patients “should be monitored by [a] physician when undergoing treatment as a safety measure.”
According to his plea agreement, Plasencia met Perry on Sept. 30, 2023, through another patient who told him the actor was seeking ketamine and willing to pay “cash and lots of thousands.”
Prosecutors said Plasencia immediately saw an opportunity for profit, noting that he texted a co-conspirator the same day: “I wonder how much this moron will pay… let’s find out.”
Later that day, Plasencia drove to Costa Mesa to buy ketamine, syringes, and gloves from San Diego physician Mark Chavez, 55.
Plasencia then went to Perry’s Los Angeles home, injected him with ketamine, and left at least one vial with Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, 60, who paid Plasencia $4,500.
Over the next two weeks, Plasencia purchased more ketamine from Chavez and administered the drug repeatedly — including once in a Long Beach parking lot in the backseat of Perry’s vehicle.
During one treatment at Perry’s home, the actor’s blood pressure spiked and he froze up. Despite the reaction, prosecutors said, Plasencia continued leaving vials with Iwamasa, knowing the assistant would inject Perry without medical oversight.
Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 12, 2023, Plasencia supplied 20 vials of ketamine, tablets, and syringes to Iwamasa and Perry, charging roughly $57,000 — far above the market price of about $15 per vial. Prosecutors argued he knowingly provided the drug for no legitimate medical purpose.
Plasencia later ordered additional ketamine using his DEA registration. On Oct. 27, he texted Iwamasa that he had “been stocking up” and left supplies with a nurse in case Perry wanted to resume treatments while he was out of town.
Perry fatally overdosed on ketamine the next day, though investigators determined the ketamine that caused his death did not come from Plasencia.
After Perry’s death, prosecutors said, Plasencia submitted falsified treatment notes and an invoice to federal agents in an effort to conceal that he was selling ketamine to Iwamasa. Among the documents was a fraudulent note claiming Perry missed an Oct. 7, 2024, appointment — a date on which Plasencia was actually scheduled to meet Iwamasa at midnight on a Santa Monica street corner to hand over more vials.
Chavez and Iwamasa pleaded guilty last year and are scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 17, 2025, and Jan. 14, 2026. Two other defendants — Erik Fleming, 56, of Hawthorne, and Jasveen Sangha, 42, of North Hollywood, known as the “Ketamine Queen” — also pleaded guilty and await sentencing early next year.
The case was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.