Highlights:
- California woman Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen”, will plead guilty to federal drug charges.
- Charges include ketamine distribution resulting in death and maintaining a drug-involved premises.
- Linked to the 2023 overdose death of Friends star Matthew Perry.
- Sangha faces up to 65 years in prison; sentencing date not yet set.
California woman Jasveen Sangha, nicknamed the “Ketamine Queen”, has agreed to plead guilty to multiple federal drug charges in connection with the 2023 overdose death of Friends actor Matthew Perry. Prosecutors said Sangha, 42, admitted supplying Perry with unsupervised doses of ketamine that contributed to his fatal overdose.
Charges against Jasveen Sangha
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Sangha will plead guilty to:
- one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises,
- three counts of distribution of ketamine, and
- one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison. Her plea hearing is expected in the coming weeks.
Perry’s death and ketamine use
Matthew Perry, aged 54, was found unresponsive at his home in the Pacific Palisades on 28 October 2023. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death an accidental overdose, with the ketamine levels in his body equivalent to those used in general anaesthesia.
Perry had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety but was also receiving unsupervised doses. Prosecutors said this led to an “out of control” dependence on the drug.
Role of Sangha and accomplices
Court documents state that Sangha, along with acquaintance Erik Fleming, supplied Perry with 51 vials of ketamine in the weeks before his death. Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, injected him with the doses, including the three that proved fatal.
Fleming and Iwamasa have both pleaded guilty to related drug charges. Prosecutors also revealed that Sangha had previously sold four vials of ketamine to another man, Cory McLaury, in 2019. He died from an overdose hours later.
Wider investigation
Several others, including two doctors, have pleaded guilty to offences linked to Perry’s death. Defence lawyer Mark Geragos said Sangha was “taking responsibility for her actions”.
The case underscores growing concerns over the misuse of ketamine, which is increasingly prescribed as an off-label treatment for depression but remains widely abused as a recreational hallucinogen.
