Already and this is the Daily This is the daili OS. Oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It is Wednesday, the twenty first of August. I'm billy, I'm Zara, secret code words, significantly overpriced drugs and deleted text messages. Those are just some of the allegations at the center of a criminal case that is
now surrounding the death of beloved actor Matthew Perry. Perry died in October of last year from a ketamine overdose, and last week it was revealed that US prosecutors have charged five people, including Perry's personal assistant, over his death. They alleged the group quote took advantage of Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves. We're going to tell you exactly what is alleged to have happened in the lead up
to Perry's death, But before we get there, Zara. What is making headlines today?
The National Children's Commissioner has called for a national overhaul of youth justice policies to improve outcomes for at risk children. A new report from the Australian Human Rights Commission, tabled in Parliament this week outlines twenty four evidence based recommendations to better protect vulnerable children and communities at a federal, state and territory level. It proposed a national task Force and Federal Minister for Children to prioritize the well being
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A New South Wales online gambling platform has been handed a record fine of nearly six hundred thousand dollars after an investigation by the state's Liquor and Gaming authority. Playoff Interactive, which trades as Draft Stars, was found guilty of illegally offering punter's incentives to open betting accounts, such as free bets and other financial enticements, via multiple online advertisements. These
kinds of incentives are illegal in New South Wales. Liquor and Gaming New South Wales said it is the responsibility of online betting operators to ensure they are not acting unlawfully.
Day two of the Democratic National Convention will continue in the US today after senior Democrats both past and present, took the stage in Chicago yesterday. The schedule included addresses from the party's twenty sixteen presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and outgoing US President Joe Biden. Former President Barack Obama will take the stage later today, while American news outlets are also reporting that former First Lady Michelle Obama will give
an address. VP. Kamala Harris will become the first Black and South Asian woman to lead a major party ticket when she's formally confirmed as the Democrats' presidential nominee at the DNC later this week.
And today's good news. Scientists in Japan have confirmed a drug they developed for patients with G and E malepathy is safe to use long term, where muscles degrade over time is so rare that it is not profitable for pharmaceutical companies to develop a drug, meaning patients were left
without treatment options until now. Following the breakthrough discovery out of Tohuku University, the drug has been approved by the Japanese government and will slow the progress of muscle loss in the estimated four hundred people with the disease in Japan.
So Billy Matthew Perry was a very well known US actor. He was known for playing Chandler Bing in the very very famous TV series Friends. I'm Chandler.
I make jokes when I'm uncomfortable.
He was also in a range of movies, including seventeen Again we figured out alongside zac Efron.
Great movie.
Great movie. He did tragically pass away in October last year after he was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his home. Last year, an autopsy revealed he had died from a ketamine overdose. But now his death is back in the headlines. What have we lent since?
Yeah, So this is a really, really tragic story. I think that's the only way you can describe it. So last week LA police held a press conference and they revealed that in their criminal investigation into Perry's death, they have now charged five people in relation to his death.
That investigation has revealed a broad, underground criminal network responsible for distributing large quantities of ketamine to mister Perry and others.
So this group includes two medical doctors, Perry's live in assistant, a friend, and also an alleged drug dealer who the prosecutors said is known colloquially as the ketamine Queen. Now, they said that this group deliberately took advantage of Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves to make themselves a profit.
They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew they were doing was risking great danger to mister Perry, but they did it anyways. In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off mister Perry than caring for his well being.
Some very strong words there from US federal Attorney Martin Estrada, who led that press conference last week. So basically, what they are claiming is that this group, like I said, deliberately and illegally supplied Matthew Perry with ketamine viueling his drug addiction, which it was well known that he had a drug addiction, essentially, like I said, for their own profit.
So you mentioned there that Matthew Perry's history with drug addiction was well known. How was that well known? What did we know about it?
Yeah? He was very open about it over the years about his addiction struggles, particularly in his memoir which was called Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing that was released in twenty twenty two, so only a year before he died, and he actually revealed in that book that he had attended six thousand alcoholics anonymous meetings and entered rehab fifteen times over his lifetime. He also revealed that he had spent about nine million dollars trying to get
sober over his life at that point. One quote from that memoir I thought really stood out. He said, quote in the dictionary under the word addict, there should be a picture of me looking around very confused.
Okay, So the first part of this story is that Matthew Perry himself had identified that he had addiction struggles. But the second part of this story is that he overdosed on ketamine, but that that ketamine was actually prescribed by a doctor to treat anxiety and depression.
Is that right, Yeah, So we know that Matthew Perry had been seeking medicinal ketamine to treat his depression and anxiety. Now, initially he had been legally prescribed it, but authorities are now saying that when he asked clinic doctors to increase his dosage and they refuse because they said that that would be too dangerous, he then turned elsewhere to access that ketamine.
When clinic doctors refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous doctors who saw Perry as a way to make quick money.
Now, I think one thing worth noting here is that there has been increased interest and research in recent years about if using small amounts of ketamine in a clinical setting can be an effective way to treat depression and anxiety.
One of my friends is actually working on research at the moment into this exact matter, whether we can look to roll this out in Australia, what that would look like, As you said, a lot of focus on that right now now.
And actually a few weeks before Perry died, the US FDA issued a warning saying that quote ketamine is not FDA approved for the treatment of any psychiatric disorder. And what they also said is that using ketamine without appropriate monitoring by a healthcare professional could put patients at serious risk. Quick note there that there is a ketamine nasal spray that has been approved in the US for medical use, but this is not what is being used here and not what they're warning against.
So just to clarify, you're speaking there of the FDA, which is basically the US's equivalent of the Therapeutic Goods Administration. It's the regulator when it comes to all of these things. Just weeks before Matthew Perry's death that we now know was related to ketamine used, they issued a warning about ketamine.
Yeah, and the risk of people thinking that they're using it for medical purposes, but they're getting too addicted of it, they're overdosing on it, and they're not doing it in controlled settings.
Okay, that's very interesting and I didn't realize that.
Yeah.
And obviously his death has now placed increased scrutiny on the use of ketamine for treatment of mental health. So, for example, I've seen some experts coming out in US publications, including The New York Times, posing the question, should someone like Perry, who has been very open about his addiction issues, ever have been prescribed any kind of ketamine in the first place.
But didn't you say that he had to source that kennemine elsewhere?
Yes, but initially he was prescribed some sort of ketemine.
Okay, So that argument is that that should have never happened in the first in.
The first place, exactly. And again, this is a huge conversation at the moment, and you know that's not something that we're going to get into.
Such a podcast.
Yeah, but just as a side note, that is a huge conversation going on at the moment. And obviously this is an extremely high profile case that is now kind of out the center.
Of that debate. Yeah, okay, So if we let that argument just sit there for a second and go back to what the prosecutors have said happened here. What did they actually say about how these people, you know, some of whom were doctors, how they actually fueled Matthew Perry's drug addiction.
I'll go through just a few examples of what has been alleged. There is a lot, and I think one point to make is that reading this and going through it as I just was in the past couple of hours, it comes across as so unbelievable. But I just really want to make the point that this isn't rumors you know, from celebrity magazines or websites. This was all detailed in a press conference by US prosecutors and in an indictment filed in a federal court last week. So these are
really serious allegations. So one example is that when discussing how much they should charge Perry for his ketamine, one of the doctors allegedly said, quote, I wonder how much this moron will pay. So quite a clear example there of how they were trying to profit off it. Allegedly, that same doctor also wrote in a text message that he wanted to be Perry's quote go to for drugs,
so he wanted to be the sole source. And in the two months prior to his death, we know that Perry paid the doctors about fifty five thousand dollars in cash for ketamine supply, and we know that they were completely overcharging him as.
I mean, and that's the whole idea of going outside of a regulated practice, is that they could do whatever they want, they could.
Decide the price by themselves. We also found out that in mid October twenty twenty three, so that's just weeks before Perry died, the same doctor allegedly told someone that Perry was spiraling out of control with his addiction, and yet that same doctor allegedly continued to offer Perry ketamine despite literally saying out loud, this is getting out of control.
We also know that in discussing the drug deals, the group of people used coded language, so they referred to ketamine as Dr Pepper, which is a popular American soft drink. It's also alleged to Perry's assistant, who it was made very clear in the press conference, has no medical training, injected Perry with at least twenty seven shots of ketamine in just the five days leading up to his death, including three on the day he died. And Perry's assistant
was also the one who found him dead. So what we know is that he injected him with a shot of ketymine, he then left, he came back and he found Perry in the hot tub, and we know that he then went and cleaned up the bottles and syringes after he found him. So extremely disturbing details there. There are so many other details. I think, you know, just saying that out loud is giving me a shiver down
my spine. It's so disturbing, and I think just those examples it really gives you a good idea of the gravity of the allegations that are being faced by this group of people.
Can I just clarify, because we've spoken about two doctors the personal assistant. Was there anyone else that's included in this group?
Yeah, so there's five people in total, the two doctors, there's one friend, there's the drug dealer who I referred to earlier, who was the queen of ketamine, and then there was the personal assistant.
Okay, and do we know how any of those people have pleaded yet.
Yes, so three of them, including the assistant, have pleaded guilty, so they have admitted to doing this and they've entered a plea deal with the prosecutors. Then there are two others, including the ketamine queen, who have pleaded not guilty, and that also includes one of the doctors, and so they will now go to a court case.
I mean, obviously, whichever way you look at it, it's just a tragic story, and I think it's it's a really interesting one because it's not confined to just an individual like this is something that has ramifications for so many different areas. It has obviously the very personal toll of Perry's death and everything that followed. There is now a criminal element to it and understanding how that goes
through the court system. But also as you identified what this could do to research about the role of ketamine in treating mental ill health. I think that you know, we can't underestimate how important this story will be in I think that's why this is such an important story. It's not noise, it's absolutely news for that very reason.
And just before we finished today, if this discussion has brought up anything for you, you can contact the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on one eight hundred two five zero zero one five. That hotline provides confidential support for anyone struggling with addiction.
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily os. This was a very heavy topic, so look after yourselves and we'll be back again tomorrow. My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Caalcuttin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.