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

[GoodieMcTwoshoes]

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Apparently his doctors took advantage of his vulnerability and discussed things like “I wonder how much this moron will pay.” Matthew Perry: Two doctors among five charged over ketamine-related death | Evening Standard

That's awful. :(

No it is not Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects. It distorts perceptions of sight and sound and makes the user feel disconnected and not in control. It is an injectable, short-acting anesthetic for use in humans and animals. It is referred to as a “dissociative anesthetic” because it makes patients feel detached from their pain and environment. Ketamine can induce a state of sedation (feeling calm and relaxed), immobility, relief from pain, and amnesia (no memory of events while under.

If you read his book you’ll realise he had previously taken quantities of drugs large enough to prove fatal. In fact he once left a rehab in Switzerland, took a private jet home. When he realised he couldn’t get a prescription anywhere near what he was taking in the US, he flew back to Switzerland later that evening.

Don’t get me wrong, I have an incredible amount of sympathy for what happened to him but he used a vast number of drugs over a significant period and had come close to death numerous times before. He even said in his book something along of the lines of ‘if the drugs killed him it would have been worth it’. I have no doubt he was vulnerable and people used him financially but I think he understood the risks of his drug use quite well.

While living in the US every time I went to the dentist he would give me a tube of painkillers (strong opioids), something that has NEVER happened to me in Europe, yep... doctors in the US give them away like candy so no wonder people get addicted to prescription drugs. In the UK NHS protocol will not prescribe opiates unless you're literally dying of cancer, so getting hook on them is way more difficult in this side of the pond. It's really great we have a not- for-profit public healthcare that stops the system benefitting from people becoming ill.

Nice to see people challenging the silly sensationalist myth of Ketamine being a horse tranquiliser.

It's not just an injectable drug either, it has legitimate uses in treating chronic pain and is usually taken orally as a liquid if at home.

It's also used to treat depression with very successful results, but of course it needs to be done in a "medically controlled environment".

Absolutely.
MP obviously had a serious relationship with drugs.
It’s tragic.

Revalidation and appraisals are such a massive tick box exercise that totally fail in picking up the Harold shipmans of medicine

Whilst the drug dealers and doctors sound vile, I do think that Matthew Perry was partly responsible for his own passing.

MP was an intelligent and wise man with decades of life experience. He knew how dangerous and addictive drugs were and unlike most people had the money and resources to get help. At the end of the day, he chose to take drugs and he has sadly suffered the consequences for doing so.

God bless him.

But also god bless the millions of other drug addicts suffering without being able to get the help MP had.

He was responsible for his addiction and for what he put into his body but I read his book when it came out and was shocked when I read that as a baby he had really bad colic and when his mother begged doctors to help him, they prescribed barbiturates - to a baby.

It feels like he was doomed from the beginning tbh and that's on the doctors.

The whole thing is shocking and really sad.

I feel sad for every person who isn't able to beat their addiction.

I think if you are wealthy in the USA you can get what you want medically drug wise legal or illegal. Look at Michael Jackson

There was a lot of evidence of that sort of thing and attitude in the Depp v Heard trials. I remember that email from Amber Heard asking (in relation to her dogs getting into Australia) 'do we have a vet we could grease?'. This is the world these people live in - find a professional who is unprofessional and open to bribery to get what you want.

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@oakleaffy Absolutely.
MP obviously had a serious relationship with drugs.
It’s tragic.

He was also quite a hardcore alcoholic, the poor guy was a mess. The combo of prescription drugs and alcohol is quite a lethal one. MP was like a cat with seven lives, he had almost died a few times but was ultimately revived by doctors. It's a miracle he got to live for so long, poor guy.

@samanthablues

He was also quite a hardcore alcoholic, the poor guy was a mess

Very often true. Someone with an underlying predilection for addiction will latch onto a particular substance of choice but the substance itself is usually interchangeable for another one.

Theres a very long history of people substituting opioid addiction for alcohol and vice versa.

Obviously some drugs are more addictive than others and there is an element of preference but an addict in active addiction will generally take what they can get. The psychological drive to use and the complex brain chemistry of addiction drives the addict to seek out something to alleviate their pain.

I agree. If you're a doctor you sign up to a strict code of ethics and should arguably be held to a higher standard than a drug dealer.

It is very common in the US. There are many doctors who basically do nothing but prescribe painkillers to people who are addicted to painkillers.

I remember wondering, when we first started hearing about people becoming addicted to prescription painkillers / strong over the counter painkillers, how that could happen. You take painkillers to kill pain, but beyond that, what did painkillers do to cause addiction.

Very naive I now know.

I think his death was an inevitability really. I was sad to hear of his death but not in the least surprised. I had read his autobiography on the recommendation of a friend and I absolutely hated it. He came across as incredibly egocentric, immature, pathetic and someone who ultimately always put himself first. He just wasn't in the least bit likeable, or at least he wasn't in his book.

And I appreciate that the nature of addiction is to be entirely focussed on one's own needs and that it is a disease but he wrote the book while sober and he struck me as only really truly caring about himself, ever.

I'm sad for him as I would be anyone who has succumbed to any kind of addiction but this is a case of supply and demand and if it wasn't this 'dealer' it would have been another.

As an aside it always amazes me that when a rich celebrity dies of a drug overdose it’s a tragedy but when it’s your common ‘junkie’ people have a very different attitude. Is anyone interested in the thousands of UK drugs deaths every year? Scotland is the drug death capital of Europe by a long long way.. i think that every one of those deaths is an absolute tragedy, I wish people were as interested in the cause as they are in what happened to Matthew Perry

Matthew Perry mentions Dopesick in his autobiography.
He talks about a particular scene with Betsy and the highs (or just the "ok"s) that addicts are seeking.
I think that there will always be people in the wings that want to exploit vulnerable people and despite his fame, fortune and all that came with it, MP was just another vulnerable person.

I really liked his autobiography. I agree with all you say though, he did not come across as likeable, he was really selfish and immature but I thought his account of addiction was very interesting - and so poignant as I did not read it until after he died.
It did give me more understanding that people who seemingly have the whole world and everything that they want, still can't escape something like this.

It's awful.

His life struck me (and I read it while he was alive) as the most protracted suicide possible. I'm interested to hear that you didn't find him likable either!

From a purely moral.point of view you're clearly right.

In the case of Matthew Perry, millions "grew up" with him and followed the life of his character over 10 years and viewed Chandler as a friend

When I found out Perry had died I was genuinely shocked and saddened.

Does anyone else feel sorry for his ex live in assistant who i believe has been charged? Perry was an adult who chose to do this. The drugs were prescribed by medical doctors and there is some discussion in small quantities that it may be used for depression. Obviously the doctors should have known better, not prescribed so much, should have been overseeing it better (or not prescribing at all).

but if the assistant thinks it’s legal and is doing as his boss tells him to do it’s a bit sad he gets charged?

They'll probably get off lightly. Conrad Murray (Michael Jackson's doctor) only got 4 years for basically giving MJ a general anaesthetic and then leaving him unsupervised. He went back to practicing medicine!

I recently read the book Demon Copperhead which goes into the prescription drug addiction scandal in the US. Its fiction but presumably based on what is/has really happened. It describes a whole industry of drug reps and bent doctors exploiting vulnerable people and its truly shocking. I was wondering what the differences are between the USA and the UK which have stopped the same happening here.