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Matthew Perry surrounded himself with “enablers” during his decades-long battle with addiction, according to a source, while a doctor warns ketamine abuse in Los Angeles is “out of control.”
“Friends” star Perry, 54, had a difficult time when attending Alcoholics Anonymous groups in New York because he couldn’t stand being challenged by others in the program who called him out, a former rehab pal of the actor said.
“Mr. Perry wasn’t able to deal with the tough love which is characteristic of my AA group,” the source told The Post. “I feel for him, but in my 25 years’ experience, sometimes ‘helping’ someone is really enabling.
“I think he had a lot of enablers who meant well. He was in a golden cage.”
The friend said he didn’t want to elaborate much further out of respect for the privacy of the rehab group, but added that Perry was a fairly “ordinary addict,” in his opinion.
Perry claimed he had been clean and sober for 19 months leading up to his death on Oct. 28 when was found facedown and unconscious in the pool at his Pacific Palisades, Calif., home.
His death was caused by the “acute effects of ketamine” and accidental drowning, according to the autopsy report released late last week.
Pathologist Dr. Michael Baden explained to The Post that Perry “essentially died from an overdose of ketamine and had about three times the normal [dosage] amount in his system.”
In his autobiography, Perry was candid about his 30-year struggle to stay sober.
The “Fools Rush In” actor said he went to 6,000 AA meetings, attended rehab at least 15 times, detoxed 65 times and spent half of his life and about $9 million of his estimated $120 million fortune going in and out of treatment or sober living homes.
The beloved actor was known to be getting ketamine infusions to treat depression and drug addiction, but the medical examiner noted he had not had one for over a week before his drowning, meaning it could not have caused his death.
Dr. David Mahjoubi, an anesthesiologist who founded the Ketamine Healing Clinic of Los Angeles, told The Post laws regarding the use and distribution of the drug were eased during the COVID-19 pandemic because people could not go into doctors’ offices.
He said more and more online drug makers are taking prescriptions from doctors who don’t do proper assessments on patients’ mental health before prescribing ketamine.
“It’s kind of the Wild West right now in terms of ketamine abuse and unfortunately, the medical boards of various states are not coming down hard enough on this,” Mahjoubi said.
He also noted the rise of “concierge medicine” services in Los Angeles, where in-home treatments are provided to patients, but Mahjoubi claimed services are often given without a full and proper physical and psychological assessment.
“There are some companies that send a medical staff to just satisfy the law, but this person probably has never seen the patient in person or even via telehealth beforehand, and that is dangerous,” he noted.
Mahjoubi said people pay thousands of dollars to receive the private ketamine treatments at home, in addition to getting them in a more controlled environment.
“I’ve caught some patients who have used multiple services and I’ve discharged them from receiving further treatment from my practice once I find out,” Mahjoubi told The Post.
“Meanwhile, you also have companies springing up online that could easily mail someone ketamine tablets. It’s gotten out of control.”
While it is still unclear how Perry obtained the ketamine that was found in his system, the autopsy report also revealed the actor was getting regular injections of testosterone just two weeks before his death.
A friend interviewed by investigators said the testosterone injections sometimes left him “angry and mean,” but he was generally happy and seemed to be in “good spirits,” according to the 29-page autopsy report.
Perry also had Buprenorphine in his system, a drug also used to treat drug addiction, the report stated.
Deputies who responded to Perry’s $6 million Pacific Palisades cottage discovered “multiple open, empty, half-filled medication bottles prescribed to [Perry], as well as over-the-counter medications, vitamins, digestive aids and dishes filled with multiple various loose pills, tablets, caplets, candy and breath mints,” according to the report.
The star was seen playing pickleball — which he said was key to staying sober — just hours before his untimely death.
In his last Instagram post, the beloved actor is seen enjoying a quiet night relaxing in his hot tub just days before he overdosed and drowned in the same pool.
“Oh, so warm water swirling around makes you feel good? I’m Mattman,” wrote the actor on his final caption.
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