Last month, the Los Angeles coroner’s office announced that the actor and comedian Matthew Perry had died from “acute effects” of ketamine, according to an autopsy report. Perry, who had been open about his struggles with addiction, was found unresponsive in a hot tub in his home in Los Angeles on 28 October 2023.
The report sparked an outpouring of concern. “If Ketamine Is So Safe, What Happened To Matthew Perry?” asked one op-ed in an American medical newspaper. Some doctors used the opportunity to warn Britain’s Daily Mail that the drug was “dangerous”. The American Society of Ketamine Physicians, Psychotherapists & Practitioners (ASKP) released a statement calling the news “a wake-up call for ketamine practitioners and the wider medical community”.
