Salvador Plasencia, Distributing Ketamine, California 2023

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

A former physician from Santa Monica was sentenced today to 30 months in federal prison for repeatedly selling vials of ketamine to actor and author Matthew Perry despite knowing Perry’s well-documented history of drug addiction and that Perry’s personal assistant was administering the drug without medical training or supervision.

Salvador Plasencia, 44, a.k.a. “Dr. P,” was sentenced by United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, who also fined him $5,600 and ordered him immediately remanded to federal custody.

Plasencia pleaded guilty on July 23 to four counts of distribution of ketamine. He surrendered his California medical license in September 2025.

Plasencia was a physician who owned and operated a Calabasas-based urgent-care clinic called Malibu Canyon Urgent Care LLC. As a medical doctor, Plasencia knew that ketamine was a controlled substance and an anesthetic that is used to treat – without the approval of the United States Food and Drug Administration – depression and other psychiatric conditions.

At all relevant times, Plasencia knew about potential risks associated with ketamine, including sedation, psychiatric events, abuse and misuse by patients, among others. As his treatment notes reflected, Plasencia also believed that patients “should be monitored by [a] physician when undergoing treatment as a safety Measure,” according to court documents.

On September 30, 2023, Plasencia was introduced to Perry by one of his own patients who stated that Perry was a “high profile person” who was seeking ketamine and was willing to pay “cash and lots of thousands” for ketamine treatment, according to Plasencia’s plea agreement.

“Rather than do what was best for Mr. Perry – someone who had struggled with addiction for most of his life – [Plasencia] sought to exploit Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Indeed, the day [Plasencia] met Perry he made his profit motive known, telling a co-conspirator: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay’ and ‘let’s find out.’”

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/former-physician-who-ran-calabasas-clinic-sentenced-2-12-years-federal-prison