Matthew Perry met drug dealer in rehab: TMZ’s Harvey Levin

( NewsNation ) — Matthew Perry’s 2023 death was just one tragic example of doctors distributing drugs to affluent clients for profit, ultimately ending in addiction and sometimes death, TMZ’s Harvey Levin and Dr. Drew Pinsky said Friday on “CUOMO.”

“This is not just about Matthew Perry. There is a network of doctors and others who are funneling drugs to people with means,” Levin said.

Making it worse, said Levin: “A lot of these people meet in rehab!”

TMZ says Perry met Jasveen Sangha , the alleged drug dealer known as the “ketamine queen,” when she and Perry were in the same Los Angeles area rehabilitation facility.

Sangha was among five people charged this week in connection to the “Friends” star’s overdose. The others are Perry’s friend, Erik Fleming, Perry’s personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, and doctors Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez.

“This is a serious problem that tragically happened to Matthew Perry, but goes way beyond him,” Levin said.

Pinsky previewed a possible defense for the two suspects who have not pleaded guilty or agreed to a plea deal. He said ketamine is a powerful surgical anesthetic that doesn’t inhibit breathing, so it probably didn’t directly kill Perry.

“Somebody may use this (as) a defense in court, which is awful, because it doesn’t make it any less outrageous that he was given extraordinary amounts of clearly dangerous drugs.”

Pinsky said Perry’s death was, at the very least, negligent homicide, and not intentional.

“This was a customer. They didn’t want him to die.”

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