A California doctor has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for illegally supplying Friends star Matthew Perry with ketamine.
The powerful sedative caused the actor's drug overdose death on 28 October 2023.
Salvador Plasencia, also known as Dr P, operated an urgent-care clinic outside Los Angeles. He pleaded guilty in federal court on 23 July to four felony counts of illegal distribution of the prescription anaesthetic.
He is the first of five people to be sentenced in relation to Perry's overdose. He was not accused of selling the actor the dose that investigators say killed him.
United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence in a Los Angeles federal courtroom.
"You and others helped Mr Perry on the road to such an ending by continuing to feed his ketamine addiction," she said.
"You exploited Mr Perry's addiction for your own profit."
Plasencia was led from the courtroom in handcuffs as his mother, watching on, cried loudly.
Perry's mother and two half-sisters gave tearful victim impact statements before the sentencing.
"The world mourns my brother," Madeleine Morrison said. "He was everyone's favourite friend. My brother's death turned my world upside down. It punched a crater in my life. His absence is everywhere."
Perry's mother talked about the things Perry overcame in life, and the strength he showed.
"I used to think he couldn't die," Suzanne Perry said as her husband, Dateline journalist Keith Morrison, stood at the podium with her.
"You called him a 'moron'. There is nothing moronic about that man. He was even a successful drug addict."
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