Matthew Perry’s Friends Are Sad He Was ‘Surrounded By Enablers’; Arrests In His Case ‘Have Brought Back A Lot Of Feelings’ For Them, Says Source
Trigger Warning: This article contains references to drug addiction
Last week’s arrests in connection to Matthew Perry’s fatal drug overdose have “brought back a lot of feelings” for his closest friends.
According to People, The U.S. Attorney’s Office charged five individuals in connection with Perry’s demise on Thursday, August 15: two doctors, a woman known as the Ketamine Queen, an alleged distributor, and Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa. The late actor’s PA, in his plea agreement to the Department of Justice, said that Perry asked him to “shoot me up with a big one” hours before his death.
Iwamasa was the one who discovered Perry’s lifeless body first and was the first person to talk to law enforcement last year.
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For Perry’s close ones, the arrests have stirred deep emotions, says the People source. “Matthew did have true friends who loved and cared about him. They would have all tried to help him if he’d reached out.”
“It makes them sad that he was surrounded by enablers,” the source added.
When announcing charges against the defendants last week, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada claimed that these offenders exploited the public’s knowledge of Perry’s drug issues to “enrich themselves.” Selling dangerous substances is gambling with other people’s lives, he asserted while assuring that Perry’s case, along with many other prosecutions of drug deals, would send a clear message to miscreants partaking in similar activities.
Perry, who, besides the hit NBC sitcom, also starred in movies like Fools Rush In, The Whole Nine Yards, and Three to Tango, had been open about his battle with addiction, telling the aforementioned publication in September 2022 that he’d mostly been sober since 2001 with about 60 or 70 relapses over the years.
Per the DOJ, Perry relapsed again in the months before his death.
Matthew Perry was very much missed on his first birthday since his death. The Friends star would’ve turned 55 on Monday, August 19. The actor, for those who may not know, was found face down in his jacuzzi on October 28, 2023. Medical examiners determined the “acute effects of ketamine,” a controlled anesthetic drug, to be the cause of his death.
If you know someone who is struggling with substance abuse, please reach out to the authorities and report it. There are several helplines available for the same.
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