A former physician from Santa Monica was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for repeatedly selling vials of ketamine to actor and author Matthew Perry despite knowing Perry’s well-documented history of drug addiction and that Perry’s personal assistant was administering the drug without medical training or supervision.
Salvador Plasencia, 44, a.k.a. “Dr. P,” was sentenced by United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, who also fined him $5,600 and ordered him immediately remanded to federal custody.
Plasencia pleaded guilty on July 23 to four counts of distribution of ketamine. He surrendered his California medical license in September 2025.
Plasencia was a physician who owned and operated a Calabasas-based urgent-care clinic called Malibu Canyon Urgent Care LLC. As a medical doctor, Plasencia knew that ketamine was a controlled substance and an anesthetic that is used to treat, without the approval of the United States Food and Drug Administration, depression and other psychiatric conditions.
Plasencia knew about potential risks associated with ketamine, including sedation, psychiatric events, abuse and misuse by patients, among others. As his treatment notes reflected, Plasencia also believed that patients “should be monitored by [a] physician when undergoing treatment as a safety Measure,” according to court documents.
On September 30, 2023, Plasencia was introduced to Perry by one of his own patients who stated that Perry was a “high profile person” who was seeking ketamine and was willing to pay “cash and lots of thousands” for ketamine treatment, according to Plasencia’s plea agreement.
“Rather than do what was best for Mr. Perry – someone who had struggled with addiction for most of his life – [Plasencia] sought to exploit Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Indeed, the day [Plasencia] met Perry he made his profit motive known, telling a co-conspirator: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay’ and ‘let’s find out.’”
The same day Plasencia met Perry, he contacted Mark Chavez, 55, then a licensed San Diego physician. Plasencia that day drove to Costa Mesa and purchased from Chavez $795 in ketamine vials and tablets, syringes, and gloves. Plasencia then drove to Perry’s home in Los Angeles, injected Perry with ketamine, and left at least one vial of ketamine to Kenneth Iwamasa, 60, of Toluca Lake, Perry’s personal assistant. Iwamasa paid Plasencia $4,500.
During the following weeks, Plasencia again purchased ketamine from Chavez and administered the drug to Perry multiple times at Perry’s home and once in a Long Beach parking lot while in the backseat of Perry’s vehicle.
During one ketamine treatment at Perry’s home, Perry’s blood pressure spiked causing him to freeze up. Notwithstanding Perry’s reaction, Plasencia left additional vials of ketamine with Iwamasa, knowing that Iwamasa would inject the ketamine into the victim.
From September 30, 2023, to October 12, 2023, Plasencia distributed 20 vials and multiple tablets of ketamine and syringes to Iwamasa and Perry, knowing that his conduct fell below the proper standard of medical care and that the ketamine transfers were not for a legitimate medical purpose. As prosecutors argued in their sentencing memorandum, Plasencia charged a total of $57,000 for these efforts, even though the going price of ketamine was only approximately $15 per vial.
Plasencia later placed an order for 10 vials of ketamine through a licensed pharmaceutical company using his Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) license. After receiving the ketamine, on October 27, 2023, he sent the following text message to Iwamasa: “I know you mentioned taking a break. I have been stocking up on the meanwhile. I am not sure when you guys plan to resume but in case its when im out of town this weekend I have left supplies with a nurse of mine ...I can always let her know the plan.”
Perry fatally overdosed on ketamine the following day. Plasencia did not provide the ketamine that caused his death.
After Perry’s overdose and in response to a subpoena issued by the DEA to Plasencia, Plasencia falsified purported treatment notes and an invoice for Perry, which prosecutors argued were designed to cover up that he had been illegally selling vials of ketamine to Iwamasa. Among other things, Plasencia provided fraudulent notes that claimed on October 7, 2024, Perry was “scheduled to meet for a treatment session but was not present,” when, in fact, as Plasencia knew, the only person he was schedule to meet on that day was Iwamasa, at midnight, at a public street corner outside of a bar in Santa Monica, to sell Iwamasa vials of ketamine, to be administered to Perry without any health care professional present.
Chavez and Iwamasa pleaded guilty last year to federal drug charges and are scheduled to be sentenced on December 17, 2025, and January 14, 2026, respectively.
Two other defendants charged in connection with Perry’s death – Erik Fleming, 56, of Hawthorne, and Jasveen Sangha, 42, a.k.a. “Ketamine Queen,” of North Hollywood- also pleaded guilty to federal drug charges and await sentencing on January 7, 2026, and February 25, 2026, respectively.
The Los Angeles Police Department, the DEA, and the United States Postal Inspection Service investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorneys Ian V. Yanniello of the National Security Division and Haoxiaohan H. Cai of the Major Frauds Section prosecuted this case.
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