"Ketamine Queen" Sentenced to 15 Years for Supplying Fatal Dose That Killed Matthew Perry

Jasveen Sangha, the Los Angeles drug dealer nicknamed the "Ketamine Queen," has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for her role in supplying the ketamine that killed Friends actor Matthew Perry in October 2023.

Sangha, 42, a dual US-British national, pleaded guilty in September to five felony drug charges, including one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death. She is the only defendant in the case whose plea deal included an explicit acknowledgement of causing Perry's death. She also admitted to selling drugs to a man named Cody McLaury in 2019, who died of an overdose hours later.

Perry was found floating face down in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home on 28th October 2023, aged 54. He had been undergoing legitimate ketamine infusions for depression and anxiety, but when his doctors refused to increase his dosage, he turned to illegal suppliers. Within weeks, he was dead from an acute ketamine overdose. Prosecutors said his dependence had been "spiralling out of control" in his final months, and that those around him exploited his addiction for financial gain. 

Sangha sold Perry 25 vials of ketamine, including the fatal dose, for $6,000 in cash four days before his death. She acknowledged selling 51 vials in total to an intermediary dealer, Erik Fleming, who passed them to Perry through the actor's live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who then injected Perry with at least three shots.

At her sentencing hearing, Sangha told the judge: "I take full responsibility for my actions. These were horrible choices that ultimately proved tragic." She said she wears her shame "like a jacket" and acknowledged that her decisions "shattered people's lives and the lives of their family and friends." The judge noted, however, that Sangha had continued selling drugs for six months after Perry's death, and that she had shown no remorse during the years following her arrest.

Perry's stepmother Debbie Perry has urged the court to impose the maximum possible sentence. "You caused this... You who has talent for business enough to make money chose the one way that hurts people," she said in a victim impact statement. "Please give this heartless woman the maximum prison sentence so she won't be able to hurt other families like ours." Perry's stepfather, broadcast journalist Keith Morrison, spoke after the sentencing: "We miss Matthew dreadfully, of course, and I feel badly for the perpetrator here as well. Nobody won today."

Sangha had faced a theoretical maximum of 65 years. Her defence had argued for a sentence limited to time already served, which is around 20 months, pointing to her lack of prior record, her own history of substance abuse, and her work running weekly Narcotics Anonymous meetings since her arrest. Her lawyer Mark Geragos challenged the disparity between her sentence and those given to others in the case. "There's no way that Jasveen is five times more culpable than the person who injected Matthew Perry with the drug, or the doctor who got the drug," he told reporters.

Sangha is the third of five defendants to be sentenced. Doctor Salvador Plasencia, who supplied ketamine to Perry in his final weeks, received two and a half years. Doctor Mark Chavez, who fraudulently obtained ketamine and sold it to Plasencia, received eight months of home confinement. Iwamasa, Perry's assistant who purchased and administered the drugs, is due to be sentenced later this month, while Fleming is scheduled to face sentencing in June.