Jasveen Sangha and the ketamine 'Wild West' of Hollywood

The woman accused of selling ketamine to Matthew Perry has agreed to plead guilty to five charges linked to the death of the "Friends" actor who was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home in October 2023. British-born Jasveen Sangha, known as the "ketamine queen", could face up to 65 years in prison.

Doctor's daughter to 'ketamine queen'

Sangha got her nickname from co-defendant Erik Fleming, who described her as the "ketamine queen" in a text message. That "epithet stuck", said Vanity Fair, capturing the "noirish spirit" of the Hollywood "underworld" she operated in.

The 42-year-old's Instagram posts suggest a "gaudy maximalism" in her lifestyle, rubbing shoulders with a "cast of characters" who have "their own porous relationships" with showbusiness. She has previously attended the Golden Globes and the Oscars, according to a friend.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

All of this made her a "figure of media fascination". "How on earth" could a doctor’s daughter "born into a respectable British Sikh family" and raised in swanky Calabasas, 30 miles north of Los Angeles, end up in so much trouble, said the Daily Mail. Sangha "has a family that takes care of her", a friend told the newspaper, describing her as "uplifting, bubbly and sweet".

But when authorities searched her North Hollywood home, they found 79 vials of ketamine, about two kilos of Xanax, and a firearm registered to her boyfriend. They described the scene as a "drug-selling emporium". Court documents say that as well as distributing the ketamine that killed Perry, she also sold the ketamine linked to the death of a man called Cody McLaury, who died of an overdose in August 2019.

She originally faced nine criminal counts but four seem to have been dropped as part of her plea deal. Her four co-defendants have also agreed to plead guilty to charges in the case.

The 'Wild West' of Hollywood

Sangha was North Hollywood's "drug linchpin", said The Hollywood Reporter, but the showbusiness district has a wider problem with ketamine. Federal authorities said they have discovered a "broad underground criminal network" of suppliers distributing massive quantities of the drug across Los Angeles.

Ketamine has become a "go-to" party drug for celebrities, who think it’s "safer" than cocaine, one doctor told the BBC. Garrett Braukman, from the Alta Centers, a rehabilitation and detox treatment centre in Hollywood, said he has seen a rise in ketamine addiction, and that around 20 to 30% of their patients work in the film industry.

Another doctor described the spread of ketamine treatments for depression and pain management as the new "Wild West". Prior to his death, Perry had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy, but his fatal overdose was not part of a prescribed regimen. Two doctors who have pleaded guilty to supplying Perry with illicit ketamine are among the five defendants charged in connection with his death.

"Doctors are humans, too", said Dr Gerard Sanacora, director of Yale University’s Depression Research Program, and although they take the "Hippocratic oath, not everyone abides by it". When they have a "VIP client" who can offer the lure of invitations to glamorous parties, or access to controlled substances in exchange for research donations, medics can "lose perspective".