'Our only son' - Matthew Perry's parents want lengthy sentence for doctor who supplied ketamine

The parents of Friends star Matthew Perry have written to a judge who is set to sentence a doctor who prescribed the actor ketamine before his overdose death.

His relatives, in two separate statements on Wednesday, said they struggle to understand why Dr Salvador Plasencia repeatedly supplied Perry with the dissociative anaesthetic.

His father and stepmother said the loss had "devastated" their family as their "next patriarch" is now gone, blaming Plasencia - a doctor who Perry's mother and stepfather called a "jackal" who repeatedly broke his Hippocratic oath.

Plasencia is the first to be sentenced in Perry's 2023 death after pleading guilty last summer to four counts of distributing ketamine.

The charges carry a maximum of 40 years in prison, though prosecutors have asked for a sentence of three years.

Both victim impact statements were filed in the case ahead of Plasencia's sentencing scheduled around 1400 ET.

He is one of five people who were charged in a multiyear federal investigation that examined how Perry, 54, acquired ketamine through an underground drug network in Hollywood. All five have since pled guilty.

Perry – best known for playing Chandler Bing on Friends – was found dead in his hot tub in Los Angeles in October 2023 after years of struggling with depression and a drug addiction.

"Matthew's recovery counted on you saying NO," his father, John, and step-mother, Debbie, wrote in one of the victim impact statements. "Your motives? I can't imagine. A doctor whose life is devoted to helping people?"

His mother and step-father, Suzanne and Keith Morrison, in their victim statement highlighted text messages included in court records, where Plasencia called Perry a "moron" and wondered how much he would be willing to pay for the drugs.

"Sometimes it's a little easier to understand when a person commits a terrible crime. Maybe in the heat of passion, or because that person makes one very bad decision," they wrote. "But…a doctor? Who trades on respect, and trust?"

They said Matthew had spent time trying to recover and was hoping for another acting comeback.

"He wanted, needed, deserved..a third act. It was ..in the planning. And then, those jackals."

Ketamine has some hallucinogenic effects and is meant to be administered only by a physician.

The actor was taking legal, prescribed amounts of the drug to treat his depression, but then started wanting more than what was prescribed.

Court documents as part of the federal investigation show it led him to multiple doctors and a woman prosecutors called the "Ketamine Queen" who supplied vast amounts of the drug and others from her Los Angeles home, which they called a "drug-selling emporium".

Prosecutors say Plasencia - also known as "Dr P" - injected Perry with ketamine at his home and in the parking lot of an aquarium in Long Beach, about 25 miles south of Los Angeles.

Plasencia taught Perry's assistant Kenneth Iwamasa - who also pleaded guilty in the case - how to administer the drug and sold additional vials for them to keep at home, according to court documents filed for the plea agreement.

Prosecutors say between 30 September 2023 and 12 October 2023, Plasencia sold twenty 5ml (100mg/ml) vials of ketamine, ketamine lozenges, and syringes to Perry and his assistant.

Prosecutors have said Plasencia and others charged in the case "took advantage of Mr Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves".