Matthew Perry- “I wonder how much this moron will pay”

Unfortunately, wealth and celebrity does not guarantee you good quality healthcare (Michael Jackson being a similar example). So sad.

This one ( Now RIP , I just googled) would prescribe surely knowing the pills would be diverted.
Lady Frankau before him was notorious for Diamorphine.
Ironically it was pure - and probably safer.( Than illegal heroin that came later).

ketamine - a horse tranquilizer. When do people look at this stuff and say what's the worst that could happen if I took it?

It's vile behavior from that doctor. How cruel

I completely agree re: parallels to Drs and the opioid crisis.

But how many have been truly held to account? I'm not aware of the BMA equivalent in the US but I would argue it needs a radical overhaul.

The major players in court and paying out billions (the distributors) never placed a single pill in the hands of a human.

Unless you can truly rely on physicians as gatekeepers and custodians of 'first do no harm' then this will keep on happening.

I feel so sorry for Perry, preyed on by a pack of vultures.

Yes, I am sure there are quite a few in London, ask any addiction service

Shame this only ever hits the news when it's someone well known and no one cares about the less wealthy who die every day, there are unscrupulous and dangerous doctors everywhere who are only in it for the money

There used to be Harley St Doctors who would write private scripts for addicts and recreational users.
One amphetamine tablet was known as “ Newtons” because of Dr Newton who wrote the private scripts.
He was stopped from doing it.

I saw that message too, made me feel very sad that people are so happy to make money out of someone else’s vulnerability, but it happens every day. I hope those involved get what they deserve

Dopesick is one of the best dramas I've ever watched. It's also very accurate to real-life although some of the characters are fictional, the main plotlines are 100% true. It made me so angry. I know that 'ketamine treatment' is maybe legitimate for some types of depression so do you think Drs get away with saying thats what they're providing? How much is this going on ?

Exactly!

In this kind of arrangement it's not about pharma incentives, what they charge their clients is incentive enough

This is a snapshot of what Hollywood is like beneath the surface. Many famous people are addicts there and it becomes normalised as a culture. Private doctors will pretty do anything for money there.

It's awful. The inevitable consequence of having a for profit healthcare system.

If you haven’t seen Dope Sick about the opioid crisis in the US then I suggest that you do. It’s heartbreaking, shocking and eye opening for someone like me who had heard of the crisis but hadn’t looked into it in detail.

It’s available on several streaming platforms like Disney +

I’m not surprised in the least that illegal drug dealers (and that includes the doctor) view their customers as income streams and don’t see them as humans deserving of kindness. If you cared about people then you wouldn’t participate in the drugs trade (as a user or dealer) because you would feel guilty about the misery that the drugs trade creates.

Drug dealers with a medical degree and a nice office.

So similar to what happened to poor Elvis, almost 50 years ago... :(

Supply and demand

Maybe that's what he meant when he said if I died people would be shocked but not surprised.

Hopefully this will help blow open some of the shenanigans that goes on in Hollywood.

The was no real incentive for his doctors to help him get clean and stay clean as there's no money in it for them.

Certainly puts a very different perspective of the drowning moron scene in Friends that some are campaigning to have edited out.

There are certainly private “lifestyle” doctors in London who do this - maybe not ketamine, but definitely sleeping tablets and opioids.

The two doctors I know of who do this both failed out of mainstream medical training at SHO level, ie incredibly junior and shouldn’t be working in an unsupervised setting. One set up an online practice, the other is the in-house doctor for some sort of wellness clinic (massage, injectables, and then her prescribing drugs of abuse). I have literally no idea how they revalidate, but I guess their RO is probably also dodgy.

USA is the country where you can buy large bottles of pain killers off the shelf the same way as a bottle of smarties.

Matthew Perry was 100 % responsible for what he put in his body but my god there were some evil people around him who took advantage of him. To me they are sub-human.

@SemperIdem

It may happen in Europe, but on a vastly smaller scale than in the USA. The financial incentive to peddle big pharma’s medical opioids doesn’t exist in the same way. The scale in the USA is actually quite frightening.

Indeed. The rewards are much higher there.

I assume that’s why prescription opioid abuse has never been anywhere near the epidemic here which it is in the US. It’s not unheard of here obviously but it hasn’t wiped out whole communities.