‘Ketamine Queen’ sentenced over Perry drug death


Jasveen Sangha has been sentenced for her role supplying ketamine to Matthew Perry. Photo: Getty/Supplied
A prolific drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen” has learnt her fate after admitting to illegally supplying the dose that led to the drowning death of Friends actor Matthew Perry.
Jasveen Sangha, 42, was sentenced on Wednesday (US time) to 15 years in a federal prison.
She pleaded guilty in September to five felony counts related to Perry’s death in his hot tub in 2023.
Sangha, a dual US-British citizen, admitted supplying 51 vials of ketamine to a go-between dealer, Erik Fleming.
Fleming in turn sold the doses to Perry through his live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa.
It was Iwamasa, prosecutors said, who later injected Perry with at least three shots of ketamine from the vials Sangha supplied, resulting in the actor’s death.
Sangha said she had been aware that vials she sold were intended for Perry.
Fleming and Iwamasa have pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced later in April.
Federal prosecutors argued in favour of a lengthy sentence for Sangha who had worked hard to “expand and profit from her drug trafficking”.
“She knew — and disregarded — the grave harm her conduct was causing,” prosecutors said in court documents.
Prosecutors cited her “callous response to the deaths she helped cause”.
Defence lawyers advocated for a sentence of time served, telling a judge in a court filing that Sangha had taken responsibility for her actions and worked to rehabilitate herself.
Sangha, who they said has a history of substance abuse, has been in prison since August 2024.
“She has maintained sustained and exemplary sobriety, and actively engaged in recovery-oriented and rehabilitative programming while in custody,” her lawyers said.
Ketamine, a short-acting anaesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, is prescribed to treat depression and anxiety, but it also has gained popularity as an illicit party drug among recreational users.
Medical examiners concluded that Perry died from acute effects of ketamine, which combined with other factors to cause the actor to lose consciousness and drown in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home.
The actor was 54 years old.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including periods that overlapped with the height of his fame playing the sardonic but charming Chandler Bing on the 1990s hit NBC television comedy Friends.
-with AAP
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