1 00:00:12,858 --> 00:00:15,640 [Dr. Drew] The source of drugs that celebrities use 2 00:00:15,777 --> 00:00:17,047 is probably not what you imagine. 3 00:00:18,731 --> 00:00:21,822 Most of the celebrities that you've heard of who have died 4 00:00:21,994 --> 00:00:24,432 were given the drugs by a physician. 5 00:00:24,605 --> 00:00:26,493 [indistinct police radio chatter] 6 00:00:26,631 --> 00:00:28,108 [reporter] Responsible for Matthew Perry's death? 7 00:00:28,279 --> 00:00:29,206 [over police radio] ...respond to the drowning. 8 00:00:33,636 --> 00:00:36,831 [Dr. Drew] There are willing physicians ready to treat special people 9 00:00:37,002 --> 00:00:38,343 and open their prescription pad. 10 00:00:38,514 --> 00:00:40,953 [reporter #2] Is this your biggest regret here, Dr. Chavez? 11 00:00:41,124 --> 00:00:42,327 The scary thing is, 12 00:00:42,498 --> 00:00:44,525 they took an oath to do no harm. 13 00:00:44,696 --> 00:00:45,760 [reporter #3] There was no possession. 14 00:00:45,761 --> 00:00:47,203 [reporter #4] He was known as Doc Hollywood. 15 00:00:49,230 --> 00:00:51,497 The physician added to his demise. 16 00:00:51,668 --> 00:00:53,969 Just because it's coming from a doctor doesn't mean it's safe. 17 00:00:54,141 --> 00:00:55,308 [archive] Without a prescription. 18 00:00:55,481 --> 00:00:57,678 [archive 2] I wonder how much this moron will pay? 19 00:01:02,727 --> 00:01:05,715 Attaining all your dreams like that isn't necessarily 20 00:01:05,887 --> 00:01:07,123 a good thing. 21 00:01:08,532 --> 00:01:10,524 [dramatic theme music plays] 22 00:01:10,695 --> 00:01:11,622 [paparazzi] Yeah, yeah. 23 00:01:11,794 --> 00:01:13,030 [paparazzi #2] Matt, Matt, [indistinct]. 24 00:01:13,202 --> 00:01:14,783 [indistinct crowd chatter] 25 00:01:14,954 --> 00:01:15,847 I wanted to be different. 26 00:01:16,019 --> 00:01:17,908 There was no prescription medication 27 00:01:18,079 --> 00:01:19,487 without a prescription. 28 00:01:21,273 --> 00:01:22,751 This is a tragedy for all of us. 29 00:01:24,365 --> 00:01:26,151 [camera shutters snapping] 30 00:01:31,233 --> 00:01:32,230 [producer] Yep. 31 00:01:32,367 --> 00:01:34,015 [indistinct chatter] 32 00:01:36,214 --> 00:01:38,206 {\an8}[producer speaking] 33 00:01:38,343 --> 00:01:41,091 {\an8}I like coming at it from the standpoint of the providers 34 00:01:41,262 --> 00:01:42,361 {\an8}and how [bleep] up they are, 35 00:01:42,534 --> 00:01:43,873 {\an8}I don't like blaming the patients. 36 00:01:44,044 --> 00:01:45,177 I don't like-- the patients are, 37 00:01:46,345 --> 00:01:48,166 they're doing what they're doing, they're patients. 38 00:01:48,303 --> 00:01:50,879 But then when the doctors treat them improperly, 39 00:01:51,051 --> 00:01:52,871 that's where I lose my mind. 40 00:01:53,043 --> 00:01:55,894 [producer] Dr. Drew, interview take one, AB common mark. 41 00:01:58,332 --> 00:02:01,320 My mother was a opera singer who ended up singing with 42 00:02:01,491 --> 00:02:02,660 the big bands, 43 00:02:03,724 --> 00:02:07,605 and then doing sort of B movies in the early 1950s. 44 00:02:08,774 --> 00:02:10,353 [Helene as Alma Mae] What are you doing here? 45 00:02:10,524 --> 00:02:13,066 {\an8}I bought a boat yesterday from a character by the name of... 46 00:02:13,203 --> 00:02:15,264 {\an8}- [Dr. Drew snickers] - ...all the right places. 47 00:02:15,435 --> 00:02:19,523 This was a whole period of her life that she hid from us, 48 00:02:19,694 --> 00:02:23,507 and I did not discover until she was about 80 years of age. 49 00:02:23,678 --> 00:02:26,529 But there was a lot going on around this time. 50 00:02:30,204 --> 00:02:32,196 My mom told this strange story. 51 00:02:32,368 --> 00:02:33,880 She was performing in Las Vegas, 52 00:02:34,051 --> 00:02:36,970 and she started having anxiety with the workload, 53 00:02:37,107 --> 00:02:39,237 and this doctor showed up to 54 00:02:39,408 --> 00:02:41,469 "relieve her anxiety" and started giving her injections. 55 00:02:42,946 --> 00:02:45,625 And the physician administering that medication 56 00:02:45,797 --> 00:02:49,334 was Dr. Max Jacobson, also known as Dr. Feelgood. 57 00:02:51,808 --> 00:02:54,384 [Simone] He became known for prescribing these... 58 00:02:55,688 --> 00:02:59,157 {\an8}vitamin cocktails that were a mix of a lot of different 59 00:02:59,328 --> 00:03:00,669 {\an8}things and not just vitamins. 60 00:03:01,974 --> 00:03:05,546 I mean, they had enzymes, animal parts, 61 00:03:05,717 --> 00:03:08,534 bone marrow, and amphetamines. 62 00:03:10,113 --> 00:03:13,822 [Dr. Drew] Amphetamine causes elevated mood, 63 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:18,082 escalation, lack of sleep, ultimately manic psychosis, 64 00:03:18,253 --> 00:03:20,382 and if you use enough amphetamine, 65 00:03:20,555 --> 00:03:22,992 anybody will become psychotic. 66 00:03:23,164 --> 00:03:25,981 It is a very dangerous medication, and people can 67 00:03:26,152 --> 00:03:29,037 then, as they try to avoid the withdrawal, 68 00:03:29,209 --> 00:03:33,055 easily compulsively pursue it and develop addiction. 69 00:03:33,227 --> 00:03:35,253 And this was the pep shot of the day. 70 00:03:38,517 --> 00:03:42,398 And Dr. Jacobson made it his business 71 00:03:42,570 --> 00:03:45,592 to administer this widely and especially to 72 00:03:45,763 --> 00:03:48,477 "special patients"-- celebrities, politicians. 73 00:03:49,782 --> 00:03:51,258 {\an8}John F. Kennedy, 74 00:03:51,431 --> 00:03:53,663 Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, 75 00:03:55,449 --> 00:03:56,858 and my mother. 76 00:03:57,028 --> 00:03:58,231 [man] Well, today here I am. 77 00:03:58,403 --> 00:04:01,218 So, you're the one who's been calling... 78 00:04:01,391 --> 00:04:03,898 [Dr. Drew] So after God knows how long of taking this, 79 00:04:04,069 --> 00:04:06,988 she finished her job in Las Vegas, came home, 80 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:08,707 and promptly went into withdrawal, 81 00:04:08,844 --> 00:04:10,699 which is a miserable condition. 82 00:04:13,068 --> 00:04:17,258 {\an8}Agitation, mood lability, sense of desperation, seizures. 83 00:04:18,255 --> 00:04:20,453 She went to her doctor not understanding what was going on 84 00:04:20,624 --> 00:04:22,445 because she didn't know what she had been given, 85 00:04:22,616 --> 00:04:24,711 and he immediately recognized what it was. 86 00:04:24,882 --> 00:04:28,215 That's amazing to me, that in 1955 or whatever that was, 87 00:04:28,386 --> 00:04:31,305 a doctor knew how to treat that and knew what it was quickly. 88 00:04:33,332 --> 00:04:34,876 She made it through. 89 00:04:35,049 --> 00:04:37,487 But imagine the potential harm there. 90 00:04:37,625 --> 00:04:38,690 That's just one example. 91 00:04:40,579 --> 00:04:43,463 You know, there's a very, very dangerous story 92 00:04:43,601 --> 00:04:45,077 with John F. Kennedy, 93 00:04:45,249 --> 00:04:47,345 where he, at the hands of Dr. Feelgood, 94 00:04:47,516 --> 00:04:49,645 developed an amphetamine psychosis. 95 00:04:52,015 --> 00:04:55,724 {\an8}And it is documented that he threw off his clothes 96 00:04:55,897 --> 00:04:59,777 and was literally doing cartwheels down a hotel hallway 97 00:04:59,949 --> 00:05:01,289 in a psychotic state. 98 00:05:02,594 --> 00:05:05,204 This was around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 99 00:05:05,375 --> 00:05:08,947 Imagine if he had been in that state when that was happening. 100 00:05:09,119 --> 00:05:12,519 Thank God, a psychiatrist came over, quickly identified 101 00:05:12,692 --> 00:05:14,168 what was going on, 102 00:05:14,340 --> 00:05:18,049 and told the president he must never see this doctor again. 103 00:05:20,487 --> 00:05:22,308 There's few people I have just massive disdain for, 104 00:05:22,445 --> 00:05:23,991 and he's one of them. 105 00:05:24,162 --> 00:05:25,089 It's disgusting. 106 00:05:29,692 --> 00:05:32,749 In 1973, Dr. Jacobson was charged with unprofessional 107 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:36,698 conduct and fraud, and in 1975, he relinquished his license. 108 00:05:39,171 --> 00:05:40,649 Then, ultimately, he passed away 109 00:05:40,820 --> 00:05:42,641 in December of 1979, 110 00:05:42,812 --> 00:05:45,009 leaving destruction in his wake. 111 00:05:46,247 --> 00:05:48,102 I'm talking about all the people he's strung out on 112 00:05:48,273 --> 00:05:50,231 drugs, all the people that died of addiction. 113 00:05:50,368 --> 00:05:54,284 There's just so many, so many adverse events potentially that 114 00:05:54,455 --> 00:05:56,756 he was a part of. It's almost hard to measure. 115 00:05:58,953 --> 00:06:01,942 [Simone] I've been an entertainment reporter and journalist for 116 00:06:02,114 --> 00:06:04,964 almost the last 15 years in Los Angeles. 117 00:06:05,136 --> 00:06:09,532 I've covered a lot of different Hollywood stories in my time. 118 00:06:09,704 --> 00:06:12,486 You see the glitz and the glamour, and you also 119 00:06:12,658 --> 00:06:14,375 see the darker side of the business, too. 120 00:06:16,264 --> 00:06:20,764 When a celebrity dies of an overdose, it's very easy to 121 00:06:20,934 --> 00:06:22,687 criticize a celebrity whenever they get caught up 122 00:06:22,858 --> 00:06:24,163 in addiction. 123 00:06:24,164 --> 00:06:27,323 But the aspect of these cases that doesn't get highlighted 124 00:06:27,494 --> 00:06:29,624 enough is accountability. 125 00:06:29,796 --> 00:06:31,032 What surprised me the most when 126 00:06:31,169 --> 00:06:33,505 researching celebrity overdose deaths 127 00:06:33,677 --> 00:06:35,910 is the number of doctors, 128 00:06:36,081 --> 00:06:39,515 medical-board-approved doctors, that are involved 129 00:06:39,688 --> 00:06:41,096 in these casualties. 130 00:06:41,232 --> 00:06:44,599 Because the reality is these celebrities don't just create 131 00:06:44,771 --> 00:06:46,007 the drugs themselves. 132 00:06:46,144 --> 00:06:48,446 They have to get the drugs from someplace. 133 00:06:57,547 --> 00:06:58,750 {\an8}[Mark] I was a special agent 134 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:01,909 {\an8}for the Drug Enforcement Administration for 30 years. 135 00:07:03,488 --> 00:07:06,270 Well, there's no doubt that it's different working in LA as 136 00:07:06,443 --> 00:07:07,507 a DEA agent. 137 00:07:09,808 --> 00:07:12,350 I think Hollywood creates these type of doctors. 138 00:07:13,861 --> 00:07:15,681 They're making tons of money. 139 00:07:15,853 --> 00:07:18,051 They like the celebrity association. 140 00:07:19,665 --> 00:07:22,859 And with celebrities and the addiction, I think 141 00:07:22,996 --> 00:07:25,744 it's more a lifestyle issue. 142 00:07:25,917 --> 00:07:29,316 And there's a lot of pressure in Hollywood. 143 00:07:31,789 --> 00:07:34,606 A lot of pressure to keep up with these production deadlines 144 00:07:34,776 --> 00:07:36,975 and to keep up with your image. 145 00:07:37,146 --> 00:07:42,333 And so I think that's just indicative of an environment 146 00:07:42,505 --> 00:07:45,218 that supports this type of drug use. 147 00:07:49,098 --> 00:07:52,911 So these are the three sort of big categories of dangerous 148 00:07:53,082 --> 00:07:55,418 addictive drugs that are pharmaceutical and being 149 00:07:55,590 --> 00:07:56,964 prescribed by physicians. 150 00:07:57,135 --> 00:07:59,781 The commonly addictive pharmaceuticals were 151 00:07:59,952 --> 00:08:02,666 the opiates and opioids-- the painkillers like Vicodin, 152 00:08:02,802 --> 00:08:04,863 Percodan, Percocet, OxyContin. 153 00:08:05,034 --> 00:08:07,749 Then there was the anti-anxiety medications that were being 154 00:08:07,885 --> 00:08:10,462 used to treat the mild opiate withdrawal symptoms 155 00:08:10,634 --> 00:08:11,628 that people were having. 156 00:08:11,629 --> 00:08:13,140 That's why everyone on opiates ended up on 157 00:08:13,312 --> 00:08:16,232 the benzodiazepines, which is the Valium, 158 00:08:16,403 --> 00:08:19,426 the Ativan, the Librium, those sorts of drugs, Xanax. 159 00:08:19,597 --> 00:08:22,380 And that includes sleeping medication like Ambien. 160 00:08:22,552 --> 00:08:25,092 And then the stimulants. 161 00:08:25,264 --> 00:08:27,256 Stimulants get going when young celebrities, 162 00:08:27,428 --> 00:08:29,661 particularly female, will get going on them 163 00:08:29,832 --> 00:08:30,999 to try to lose weight. 164 00:08:33,473 --> 00:08:36,117 {\an8}[Mark] When the prescription drug thing came along, 165 00:08:36,290 --> 00:08:38,419 I was a big proponent of hanging these doctors 166 00:08:38,591 --> 00:08:39,689 in the public square, 167 00:08:41,338 --> 00:08:44,052 making an example out of them. 168 00:08:46,525 --> 00:08:48,586 I didn't know anything about prescription drugs. 169 00:08:50,680 --> 00:08:52,570 But I got assigned to my partner. 170 00:08:53,874 --> 00:08:56,072 She was well-trained in the prescription drugs, 171 00:08:56,244 --> 00:08:58,339 and so the two of us worked together on these cases. 172 00:08:59,919 --> 00:09:02,426 {\an8}[Susannah] There was one case which was shocking. 173 00:09:03,525 --> 00:09:04,693 This was not publicized. 174 00:09:04,864 --> 00:09:06,924 You know, we didn't list celebrity names. 175 00:09:07,097 --> 00:09:08,916 But it changed my perspective. 176 00:09:09,089 --> 00:09:12,421 He was someone that we commonly referred to as Doc Hollywood. 177 00:09:16,199 --> 00:09:18,260 We worked with a lot of local police departments. 178 00:09:18,431 --> 00:09:21,727 I remember being in the office and getting the call from 179 00:09:21,900 --> 00:09:24,132 the detective at Redondo Beach Police Department. 180 00:09:24,304 --> 00:09:26,844 He said, "Hey, we're buying Adderall off Craigslist." 181 00:09:31,687 --> 00:09:33,473 And they're saying it's coming from a doctor, 182 00:09:34,676 --> 00:09:36,290 from a Dr. Nathan Kuemmerle. 183 00:09:37,321 --> 00:09:38,557 He was a psychiatrist. 184 00:09:38,728 --> 00:09:41,545 He was not affiliated with any large facilities. 185 00:09:43,537 --> 00:09:45,735 His office was in West Hollywood on Sunset. 186 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:48,963 And so that's when we made 187 00:09:49,135 --> 00:09:51,643 the determination to start looking at sending 188 00:09:51,814 --> 00:09:53,531 an undercover in with the informant. 189 00:09:58,031 --> 00:10:00,126 This is Dr. Kuemmerle's office right here. 190 00:10:00,298 --> 00:10:01,499 This would be the front door. 191 00:10:01,671 --> 00:10:03,286 His office was up on the third floor. 192 00:10:05,758 --> 00:10:09,673 This is the alley behind the building right here. 193 00:10:09,846 --> 00:10:11,047 And there's a back door to this 194 00:10:11,219 --> 00:10:12,559 that leads you into the building. 195 00:10:12,730 --> 00:10:15,615 So, we did see a lot of what appeared to be 196 00:10:15,787 --> 00:10:17,814 drug-seeking people coming in and out the back. 197 00:10:17,985 --> 00:10:20,218 And we started to recognize the people that were coming in 198 00:10:20,390 --> 00:10:23,033 and out the back door as celebrities, 199 00:10:23,206 --> 00:10:25,094 which isn't really normal. 200 00:10:25,232 --> 00:10:28,254 You know, normally patients come in and out the front door, 201 00:10:28,427 --> 00:10:29,525 not the back door. 202 00:10:30,864 --> 00:10:33,990 So, during the first undercover buy, unlike other 203 00:10:34,162 --> 00:10:36,670 doctor's offices where you have to call, make an appointment, 204 00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:37,837 you just walk in. 205 00:10:41,305 --> 00:10:42,713 [UC officer] Yeah, yeah, yeah. 206 00:10:42,885 --> 00:10:45,908 And then they got in to see, um, Kuemmerle, getting 207 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:48,484 the Adderall prescriptions. 208 00:10:48,656 --> 00:10:50,099 I mean, normal people go to the doctor, 209 00:10:50,235 --> 00:10:52,674 tell about their conditions, and then the doctor determines 210 00:10:52,845 --> 00:10:55,078 what's prescribed, where, with these pill mills, 211 00:10:55,215 --> 00:10:56,590 you go in and ask for what you want. 212 00:10:58,067 --> 00:10:59,062 [UC officer] Yeah. 213 00:11:00,675 --> 00:11:01,672 [UC officer] Mm. 214 00:11:05,210 --> 00:11:06,376 [UC officer] Yeah. 215 00:11:06,377 --> 00:11:07,545 When you go to the doctor's office, you typically 216 00:11:07,717 --> 00:11:10,086 don't order off a menu, 217 00:11:10,259 --> 00:11:12,285 and, uh, there was no medical exam. 218 00:11:12,457 --> 00:11:14,688 There was no discussion of medical history. 219 00:11:16,784 --> 00:11:23,447 {\an8}And so our undercover paid $150 in cash for the prescriptions 220 00:11:23,619 --> 00:11:25,439 and walked out. 221 00:11:27,431 --> 00:11:29,114 We did another undercover buy, 222 00:11:29,285 --> 00:11:31,518 and this one, it was within a couple weeks. 223 00:11:32,926 --> 00:11:37,082 And this time we instructed the undercover officer to ask 224 00:11:37,253 --> 00:11:38,902 for a prescription in his brother's name. 225 00:11:39,074 --> 00:11:42,954 And so Kuemmerle agreed for the extra $50 to write him 226 00:11:43,127 --> 00:11:45,462 a prescription for his brother, who was not present, 227 00:11:45,634 --> 00:11:48,038 which is clearly outside the usual course 228 00:11:48,210 --> 00:11:49,446 of professional practice. 229 00:11:51,679 --> 00:11:56,488 A month later, we decided to do another undercover buy. 230 00:11:58,994 --> 00:11:59,990 They go in, 231 00:12:01,501 --> 00:12:02,669 and there's paperwork. 232 00:12:03,734 --> 00:12:07,992 We told him to just write, you know, squiggly lines, 233 00:12:09,504 --> 00:12:12,149 but don't write anything that makes really any sense. 234 00:12:13,557 --> 00:12:16,751 And so an office manager for Dr. Kuemmerle 235 00:12:17,850 --> 00:12:19,945 took the paperwork from him and just filled it out himself. 236 00:12:21,456 --> 00:12:25,647 And so it was clear that this paperwork was more of a CYA 237 00:12:25,783 --> 00:12:28,805 and had nothing to do with any medical evaluation. 238 00:12:31,175 --> 00:12:34,405 And during this visit, lots of strange things happening. 239 00:12:37,976 --> 00:12:39,453 [UC officer] Yeah. 240 00:12:39,624 --> 00:12:41,479 Including, you know, construction workers 241 00:12:41,651 --> 00:12:43,471 being allowed to come in to the room. 242 00:12:44,468 --> 00:12:48,108 [singing] May it be a shining star. 243 00:12:49,034 --> 00:12:52,195 [Susannah] It was clear that he was under the influence of something 244 00:12:52,367 --> 00:12:54,736 and that his behavior was becoming more and more erratic. 245 00:12:57,278 --> 00:12:58,274 [UC officer] Yeah. 246 00:13:02,635 --> 00:13:04,354 It's such a huge hit. 247 00:13:04,525 --> 00:13:06,277 And in my experience, most of these guys that 248 00:13:07,719 --> 00:13:09,127 hand out drugs to drug addicts 249 00:13:09,298 --> 00:13:10,536 are themselves drug addicts. 250 00:13:15,721 --> 00:13:16,716 [UC officer] You gotta be. 251 00:13:18,881 --> 00:13:21,559 He did everything from saying he was 252 00:13:21,732 --> 00:13:25,476 a writer and a psychiatrist and a predictor of the future. 253 00:13:29,734 --> 00:13:32,859 So he was not only selling Adderall, he was probably one 254 00:13:33,031 --> 00:13:34,440 of his own best customers. 255 00:13:41,790 --> 00:13:45,190 We decided to go in and do another undercover buy. 256 00:13:45,361 --> 00:13:48,178 We were trying to demonstrate that this isn't a one-off. 257 00:13:48,350 --> 00:13:49,998 This isn't just one prescription. 258 00:13:50,170 --> 00:13:53,467 This is numerous red flags associated with 259 00:13:53,638 --> 00:13:54,840 every prescription that's being written. 260 00:13:57,073 --> 00:14:00,610 And during this visit, Kuemmerle was talking about 261 00:14:00,782 --> 00:14:01,950 different celebrities. 262 00:14:04,388 --> 00:14:06,827 And so we started going, "wow, this is going to be 263 00:14:06,998 --> 00:14:09,918 a much bigger investigation." 264 00:14:10,090 --> 00:14:12,974 [Susannah] The office manager comes into the room 265 00:14:13,147 --> 00:14:16,169 and whispers something to Kuemmerle. 266 00:14:17,852 --> 00:14:19,569 Kuemmerle tells our undercover 267 00:14:19,740 --> 00:14:21,630 that there's a celebrity in the office. 268 00:14:21,801 --> 00:14:24,172 Can't say who it is, but says... 269 00:14:45,534 --> 00:14:46,531 [Dr. Drew] "She's on the cover 270 00:14:46,701 --> 00:14:48,523 of Cosmopolitan magazine right now." 271 00:14:48,693 --> 00:14:52,197 {\an8}I'm looking at the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine on 272 00:14:52,369 --> 00:14:54,806 {\an8}the day of that tape I just viewed. 273 00:14:57,108 --> 00:14:58,584 [Mark] And it was Amanda Bynes. 274 00:14:58,757 --> 00:15:00,680 {\an8}She stated in several interviews that she had 275 00:15:00,851 --> 00:15:03,152 {\an8}a problem with Adderall and was addicted to it. 276 00:15:10,331 --> 00:15:12,049 She initially had started for weight loss 277 00:15:12,186 --> 00:15:14,212 {\an8}and then couldn't stop. 278 00:15:14,384 --> 00:15:16,719 {\an8}[Simone] Amanda Bynes was known as a breakout star 279 00:15:16,891 --> 00:15:18,677 on Nickelodeon shows like "All That" 280 00:15:18,848 --> 00:15:20,085 and "The Amanda Show." 281 00:15:20,257 --> 00:15:23,485 Later, she became notorious for troubling headlines. 282 00:15:23,657 --> 00:15:27,091 {\an8}So he was not protecting his patient privacy. 283 00:15:27,263 --> 00:15:30,560 It was this bragging, this grandiose ego that 284 00:15:30,732 --> 00:15:31,969 we saw displayed. 285 00:15:32,965 --> 00:15:36,227 [Mark] And his patient list had several other celebrities 286 00:15:36,400 --> 00:15:40,211 coming here because a lot of celebrities were taking 287 00:15:40,384 --> 00:15:42,272 {\an8}Adderall to stay thin. 288 00:15:42,444 --> 00:15:44,985 {\an8}And then they continued to take more and more Adderall 289 00:15:45,157 --> 00:15:49,175 {\an8}because it helped with their long 16-hour days. 290 00:15:50,481 --> 00:15:51,546 Yeah... 291 00:15:51,717 --> 00:15:53,159 [Bill] I think he fancied himself 292 00:15:53,331 --> 00:15:55,563 to be the psychiatrist to the stars. 293 00:15:55,736 --> 00:15:58,723 {\an8}He was the number one prescriber of Adderall. 294 00:15:58,861 --> 00:16:03,325 {\an8}And this is back in 2008-2009, a situation where he wrote 295 00:16:03,498 --> 00:16:05,696 probably three times as many prescriptions 296 00:16:05,833 --> 00:16:07,103 as the number two person. 297 00:16:08,099 --> 00:16:11,362 The celebrity aspect was just kind of an obstacle that was 298 00:16:11,534 --> 00:16:15,896 constantly over our shoulder. With the celebrities came fame. 299 00:16:16,068 --> 00:16:18,918 With fame came public focus. 300 00:16:19,090 --> 00:16:21,906 With that public focus came attention. 301 00:16:22,078 --> 00:16:23,314 And the undercover cases 302 00:16:23,487 --> 00:16:25,890 work better when we don't have that attention. 303 00:16:34,306 --> 00:16:37,602 With Nathan Kuemmerle, it was for him, in my opinion, 304 00:16:37,740 --> 00:16:40,590 all about being close to celebrity and kind of getting 305 00:16:40,727 --> 00:16:44,025 in those celebrity circles and, in his mind, perhaps, 306 00:16:44,197 --> 00:16:46,360 becoming a celebrity himself by being their doctor. 307 00:16:51,134 --> 00:16:53,985 [Dr. Drew] I actually published a study about 308 00:16:54,157 --> 00:16:56,732 narcissistic traits and addiction. 309 00:16:56,903 --> 00:16:58,416 And one of the most dangerous things 310 00:16:58,586 --> 00:17:02,263 for public figures is physicians who bask in 311 00:17:02,434 --> 00:17:04,392 the narcissistic glow of celebrity. 312 00:17:04,562 --> 00:17:05,833 I'm making that patient feel better. 313 00:17:05,834 --> 00:17:08,649 I have this special patient. Only I know how to help them. 314 00:17:08,822 --> 00:17:10,847 And that's hubris. That's narcissism. 315 00:17:11,020 --> 00:17:13,149 It's basking in the narcissistic glow, 316 00:17:13,321 --> 00:17:16,652 and it's the opposite of the practice of medicine. 317 00:17:16,823 --> 00:17:21,426 {\an8}That to me is just a stunning abuse of 318 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,892 {\an8}the trust that we place in our healthcare providers. 319 00:17:26,063 --> 00:17:30,494 They take a Hippocratic oath to protect patients and to 320 00:17:30,630 --> 00:17:32,760 look out for their best interest. 321 00:17:32,932 --> 00:17:37,156 And when they just completely trample over that trust, 322 00:17:37,329 --> 00:17:38,633 that's an egregious violation. 323 00:17:54,364 --> 00:17:57,283 [Susannah] This was my lowest sentence of any doctor case I investigated, 324 00:17:57,420 --> 00:17:59,275 either in Texas or California. 325 00:17:59,412 --> 00:18:01,713 I don't think that sends a message that 326 00:18:01,885 --> 00:18:04,942 the top prescriber for the entire state of California 327 00:18:05,113 --> 00:18:08,513 for Adderall received time served... 328 00:18:09,681 --> 00:18:11,502 of, you know, approximately 10 months, right? 329 00:18:17,100 --> 00:18:21,324 [Mark] Here's a thing that I haven't really touched on, is juries 330 00:18:21,496 --> 00:18:24,827 have a hard time understanding how a doctor would risk 331 00:18:24,999 --> 00:18:26,099 his entire career 332 00:18:27,541 --> 00:18:30,907 to write a prescription drug outside the scope of 333 00:18:31,078 --> 00:18:33,139 a legitimate medical practice. 334 00:18:33,276 --> 00:18:35,509 Juries have a hard time believing that. 335 00:18:35,681 --> 00:18:37,811 [Bill] And, you know, what always happens is they lose 336 00:18:37,982 --> 00:18:40,215 their medical license temporarily. 337 00:18:40,352 --> 00:18:42,686 They lose their ability to prescribe drugs from DEA 338 00:18:42,859 --> 00:18:44,233 temporarily, but they always get it back. 339 00:18:52,407 --> 00:18:55,532 This was kind of a perfect storm, and the medical board 340 00:18:55,704 --> 00:18:59,139 up until that point had really never had to deal with 341 00:18:59,275 --> 00:19:01,131 criminal cases against doctors. 342 00:19:10,781 --> 00:19:16,963 We are supposed to be driven by the priority of "do no harm." 343 00:19:17,101 --> 00:19:19,402 I started to notice it got worse when 344 00:19:19,574 --> 00:19:22,013 the opioid epidemic was upon us. 345 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:32,041 [Susannah] So in early 2000s is where the rise of the companies that 346 00:19:32,213 --> 00:19:36,540 were selling these opioids as the end-all, be-all-- the cure. 347 00:19:36,712 --> 00:19:37,880 And it's not addictive, right? 348 00:19:38,979 --> 00:19:40,250 And so there was a lot of kind of 349 00:19:40,421 --> 00:19:42,447 this false marketing out there. 350 00:19:42,619 --> 00:19:45,745 We didn't realize how dangerous it was because it was in 351 00:19:45,917 --> 00:19:47,152 a prescription bottle. 352 00:19:47,909 --> 00:19:50,519 And so there was this just lack of understanding that just 353 00:19:50,690 --> 00:19:52,407 because it's coming from a doctor doesn't mean 354 00:19:52,579 --> 00:19:55,362 it's safe, doesn't mean it was legitimately prescribed. 355 00:19:57,663 --> 00:20:01,234 [Bill] There was an incident with Dr. Jules Lusman. 356 00:20:01,406 --> 00:20:04,291 He came on everyone's radar because of Winona Ryder. 357 00:20:06,764 --> 00:20:08,549 [Simone] A lot of us know Winona Ryder 358 00:20:08,722 --> 00:20:10,165 because of "Edward Scissorhands," 359 00:20:12,637 --> 00:20:15,900 {\an8}the iconic Tim Burton film with Johnny Depp. 360 00:20:17,514 --> 00:20:21,670 {\an8}Today, we know Winona Ryder because of "Stranger Things." 361 00:20:21,808 --> 00:20:24,795 And this was a major comeback for her, 362 00:20:24,967 --> 00:20:27,234 especially because she had a huge stain 363 00:20:27,405 --> 00:20:30,119 on her career from her shoplifting incident. 364 00:20:36,988 --> 00:20:40,868 [Dr. Drew] December 2001, Winona Ryder was arrested for stealing 365 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:44,818 $5,500 from Saks worth of designer clothing. 366 00:20:48,493 --> 00:20:52,546 [Simone] Why would Winona Ryder, America's sweetheart, 367 00:20:52,684 --> 00:20:54,538 be stealing from Saks Fifth Avenue? 368 00:20:54,743 --> 00:20:57,252 I mean, can't you afford to buy whatever you want from 369 00:20:57,423 --> 00:20:58,727 Saks Fifth Avenue? 370 00:20:58,900 --> 00:20:59,999 [reporter] Winona, how are you doing? 371 00:21:00,171 --> 00:21:01,922 [reporter #2] Winona, how are you feeling today? 372 00:21:02,095 --> 00:21:05,220 So this label, "kleptomaniac," gets thrown 373 00:21:05,391 --> 00:21:07,005 around in relation to Winona Ryder. 374 00:21:08,105 --> 00:21:12,604 [Dr. Drew] I immediately announced that this is opiate addiction. 375 00:21:12,775 --> 00:21:14,458 Immediately. 376 00:21:14,596 --> 00:21:18,271 Because one thing my female opiate-using patients 377 00:21:18,442 --> 00:21:21,018 were doing frequently back then 378 00:21:21,190 --> 00:21:22,907 was in order to get that endorphin rush 379 00:21:23,079 --> 00:21:24,556 that they were used to getting from the drugs, 380 00:21:24,727 --> 00:21:28,780 they will do sensational things, particularly stealing. 381 00:21:28,951 --> 00:21:31,528 {\an8}After the felony preliminary hearing today conducted in 382 00:21:31,665 --> 00:21:34,173 {\an8}Division I of the Beverly Hills Courthouse, 383 00:21:34,344 --> 00:21:36,303 Judge Fox held the defendant to answer 384 00:21:36,473 --> 00:21:38,362 on four felony charges. 385 00:21:38,500 --> 00:21:40,663 Winona Ryder was caught shoplifting, and she had 386 00:21:40,835 --> 00:21:42,380 multiple prescription bottles in her purse. 387 00:21:42,518 --> 00:21:44,854 {\an8}I'm telling you right now, there was no possession of 388 00:21:45,025 --> 00:21:48,048 {\an8}prescription medications without a prescription. 389 00:21:49,044 --> 00:21:50,589 [Dr. Drew] She essentially had Demerol, 390 00:21:50,761 --> 00:21:52,890 which is an incredibly powerful opiate, 391 00:21:53,062 --> 00:21:55,089 and then various forms of Vicodin 392 00:21:55,260 --> 00:21:56,428 and Percocet, Percodan. 393 00:21:57,665 --> 00:22:01,409 And one of the prescribers was a Dr. Jules Mark Lusman. 394 00:22:03,675 --> 00:22:05,564 [Bill] So Dr. Lusman is a plastic surgeon, 395 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:09,651 just basically running a medical practice from his home. 396 00:22:11,403 --> 00:22:13,497 You know, his bedroom was the exam room. 397 00:22:13,670 --> 00:22:15,524 His living room was the waiting room. 398 00:22:15,696 --> 00:22:17,345 He would request payments in cash. 399 00:22:18,993 --> 00:22:22,496 [Dr. Drew] Dr. Lusman was known to charge large amounts of money 400 00:22:22,667 --> 00:22:26,548 to make after-hours calls to celebrities, to special people, 401 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,087 often giving them infusions of substances, opiates, 402 00:22:30,258 --> 00:22:32,971 and he did have Winona Ryder's medical file. 403 00:22:34,277 --> 00:22:36,269 He was taking care of her under the name, 404 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:37,918 however, of Emily Thompson. 405 00:22:39,051 --> 00:22:41,214 Over several months, Dr. Lusman prescribed 406 00:22:41,352 --> 00:22:43,206 multiple different opiates and some under the name 407 00:22:43,344 --> 00:22:45,233 Emily Thompson. 408 00:22:45,404 --> 00:22:47,499 {\an8}Not something that doctors are supposed to do. 409 00:22:47,671 --> 00:22:49,663 And I've seen it in a bunch of cases because they say 410 00:22:49,835 --> 00:22:53,063 they're protecting the privacy of the patient, etc. 411 00:22:53,201 --> 00:22:55,983 {\an8}But it's not legitimate and it can cause significant problems 412 00:22:56,155 --> 00:22:58,867 {\an8}because no other doctor, then, will know 413 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:00,653 {\an8}that this patient is taking that drug. 414 00:23:23,940 --> 00:23:26,172 After that, he went to South Africa and started 415 00:23:26,343 --> 00:23:27,958 practicing medicine there. 416 00:23:28,096 --> 00:23:29,950 Had he stayed here in California and waited out 417 00:23:30,088 --> 00:23:31,908 his probation time, he would have been relicensed 418 00:23:32,046 --> 00:23:33,694 by the state. It happens all the time. 419 00:23:33,865 --> 00:23:36,475 There's constantly second and third chances for doctors 420 00:23:36,647 --> 00:23:38,845 who are in similar situations like that. 421 00:23:41,283 --> 00:23:46,024 It's important to talk about these cases because the doctors 422 00:23:46,195 --> 00:23:51,553 who are enabling these addictions need to be stopped. 423 00:23:51,725 --> 00:23:56,190 A lot of addictions started with legitimate prescribed 424 00:23:56,361 --> 00:23:59,624 medical use of opiate drugs, some kind of injury that 425 00:23:59,796 --> 00:24:01,170 opiate drugs are normally used to treat 426 00:24:01,341 --> 00:24:02,405 those injuries for pain. 427 00:24:07,077 --> 00:24:08,554 [Dr. Drew] The opioid crisis was way underway 428 00:24:08,725 --> 00:24:11,026 and I was just fighting it. 429 00:24:11,198 --> 00:24:13,774 And at the time being told I was old-fashioned, 430 00:24:13,912 --> 00:24:17,312 I was interested in patient suffering, I was opiophobic, 431 00:24:17,483 --> 00:24:19,751 I didn't know what I was talking about while my patients 432 00:24:19,888 --> 00:24:22,018 were dying constantly at the hands of my peers. 433 00:24:24,216 --> 00:24:26,722 Mike Starr, Alice in Chains. 434 00:24:26,860 --> 00:24:29,402 We got him sober for a year. A miracle. 435 00:24:29,573 --> 00:24:31,290 This guy was a lifetime drug addict. 436 00:24:31,462 --> 00:24:33,386 No pain, no nothing, starting to thrive. 437 00:24:34,690 --> 00:24:36,545 He moved to Utah with the band. 438 00:24:37,541 --> 00:24:41,319 One day he calls me and goes, Drew, I'm having back pain. 439 00:24:41,491 --> 00:24:44,410 And I said, "Mike, please, whatever you do, 440 00:24:44,581 --> 00:24:48,874 do not tell a doctor that you have pain. Please." 441 00:24:49,047 --> 00:24:50,730 Two weeks later, dead, 442 00:24:50,901 --> 00:24:53,202 pain pill-- benzodiazepine at the bedside. 443 00:24:56,842 --> 00:24:58,698 Jeff Conway, chronic pain patient. 444 00:24:59,728 --> 00:25:00,964 Got him off drugs. 445 00:25:01,136 --> 00:25:02,544 But of course, he goes back to the doctors. 446 00:25:02,682 --> 00:25:03,850 They say, "Why do you listen to these people?" 447 00:25:04,021 --> 00:25:05,258 "You just need to take these medicines. 448 00:25:05,429 --> 00:25:06,666 "I told you you're gonna need to take them 449 00:25:06,837 --> 00:25:07,903 the rest of your life." 450 00:25:08,898 --> 00:25:10,101 Two weeks later, dead. 451 00:25:11,199 --> 00:25:13,535 I saw other celebrities die from deadly combination of 452 00:25:13,672 --> 00:25:15,733 drugs mixed with anti-anxiety medication. 453 00:25:17,759 --> 00:25:19,855 Heath Ledger was prescribed 454 00:25:20,026 --> 00:25:22,602 a ton of drugs by a doctor and stopped breathing. 455 00:25:24,148 --> 00:25:26,242 Anna Nicole Smith... 456 00:25:26,414 --> 00:25:30,021 I was singing it from every hilltop that you are watching 457 00:25:30,192 --> 00:25:33,146 a woman die and nobody seemed to care. 458 00:25:35,585 --> 00:25:38,023 We just roll over these celebrity deaths. 459 00:25:41,561 --> 00:25:43,003 [Chazz] My cousin was Prince. 460 00:25:43,175 --> 00:25:44,411 A lot of people are afraid to say this 461 00:25:44,548 --> 00:25:46,231 because they probably get called crazy. 462 00:25:48,670 --> 00:25:50,524 [overlapping shouts] 463 00:25:50,696 --> 00:25:53,822 When he died, that disturbed me to the core. 464 00:25:55,265 --> 00:25:57,119 I think somebody should be held accountable 465 00:25:57,290 --> 00:25:58,355 for killing somebody. 466 00:26:08,281 --> 00:26:11,509 [Chazz] I'm from Minneapolis. Born 1956. 467 00:26:13,055 --> 00:26:14,979 Prince and I, our grandmothers are sisters. 468 00:26:16,764 --> 00:26:20,336 {\an8}We got earrings in our ears at eight years old. 469 00:26:21,367 --> 00:26:22,809 {\an8}See? See, I have four in this ear 470 00:26:22,981 --> 00:26:24,319 and one in this ear. 471 00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:27,171 And people used to tease us and call us all kinds of names. 472 00:26:29,608 --> 00:26:31,498 {\an8}But we was some rockers, for real. 473 00:26:31,635 --> 00:26:33,490 {\an8}So I will tell you the whole story. 474 00:26:33,627 --> 00:26:35,413 Now, this is a famous story about our group, 475 00:26:35,551 --> 00:26:38,402 the first group that everybody knows all of us from. 476 00:26:38,539 --> 00:26:39,981 It's called Grand Central. 477 00:26:40,153 --> 00:26:43,279 It was me on drums, Prince Nelson on guitar. 478 00:26:43,450 --> 00:26:45,854 Anything Prince wanted to do, he would do. 479 00:26:47,332 --> 00:26:49,941 That's the way this man was on his music and anything else 480 00:26:50,113 --> 00:26:50,938 that we did. 481 00:26:51,110 --> 00:26:52,312 The freedom that I had 482 00:26:53,205 --> 00:26:56,433 came from a long, hard fight of trying to get them to 483 00:26:56,605 --> 00:26:59,901 understand that I wanted to be different. 484 00:27:00,074 --> 00:27:03,679 [Chazz] Everybody knows he was a great artist, great musician, 485 00:27:03,851 --> 00:27:04,779 a true fighter, 486 00:27:06,187 --> 00:27:07,355 creative genius. 487 00:27:08,557 --> 00:27:09,861 There'll never be anything like it. 488 00:27:11,374 --> 00:27:12,747 Everybody knows that. 489 00:27:15,220 --> 00:27:17,040 {\an8}But to me, that's my cousin. 490 00:27:23,496 --> 00:27:24,493 Excuse me for a moment. 491 00:27:36,445 --> 00:27:38,608 Our whole family was proud of him. 492 00:27:41,837 --> 00:27:42,902 [sniffles] 493 00:27:45,341 --> 00:27:46,405 Man. 494 00:27:49,770 --> 00:27:52,759 [announcer] The one, the only, Prince! 495 00:27:52,931 --> 00:27:54,373 - [cheering] - One, two, three! 496 00:27:54,545 --> 00:27:55,919 [music starts] 497 00:27:56,778 --> 00:28:02,238 {\an8}[Dr. Drew] This is Jimmy Kimmel at a stage behind his studio. 498 00:28:02,410 --> 00:28:03,749 {\an8}And he'd occasionally have concerts out there. 499 00:28:03,921 --> 00:28:05,844 {\an8}And this evening, it was Prince. 500 00:28:06,016 --> 00:28:08,214 And my wife and I went there to see him. 501 00:28:08,386 --> 00:28:09,725 {\an8}[producer speaking] 502 00:28:09,897 --> 00:28:10,928 Oh, I was a fan. 503 00:28:11,100 --> 00:28:12,989 - [music playing from phone] - Yeah. 504 00:28:14,293 --> 00:28:17,144 I just liked the funk quality that he had. 505 00:28:17,316 --> 00:28:18,999 I just thought it was great. 506 00:28:19,136 --> 00:28:21,677 [Simone, singing] I would die for you. 507 00:28:21,849 --> 00:28:25,215 {\an8}Ooh, darling, if I want me to-- you. 508 00:28:25,386 --> 00:28:28,203 {\an8}Ooh, I would die for you. 509 00:28:28,375 --> 00:28:29,748 Hoo! 510 00:28:29,921 --> 00:28:32,084 Those little hoos. That was so Prince. 511 00:28:34,076 --> 00:28:35,244 He was authentically him. 512 00:28:36,205 --> 00:28:41,048 He had a connection to people that spanned countries 513 00:28:41,220 --> 00:28:46,166 and cities and demographics and races. 514 00:28:46,337 --> 00:28:50,150 Prince spoke a universal language that we all share. 515 00:28:51,764 --> 00:28:54,959 But we really didn't know that he was struggling with 516 00:28:55,130 --> 00:28:57,911 health issues leading up to his death. 517 00:28:58,049 --> 00:29:00,316 {\an8}Supposedly, Prince complained of hip pain. 518 00:29:00,487 --> 00:29:02,927 Although he had lots of complaints of pain, there was 519 00:29:03,098 --> 00:29:07,803 never any hints of anything inhibiting his performances. 520 00:29:07,940 --> 00:29:09,795 [Bill] And one of the things to treat the pain 521 00:29:09,932 --> 00:29:11,478 was an opiate pain reliever. 522 00:29:12,474 --> 00:29:16,939 So if he was in pain, my hips are so bad, I need surgery, 523 00:29:17,111 --> 00:29:19,034 and now I'm hooked on the opioids. 524 00:29:19,206 --> 00:29:22,091 Can you imagine Prince telling people, you know, 525 00:29:22,262 --> 00:29:23,945 they can't wait to pounce on him. 526 00:29:24,116 --> 00:29:26,212 So I knew he was in a spot, 527 00:29:26,384 --> 00:29:27,689 his legacy and everything. 528 00:29:27,826 --> 00:29:29,509 [overlapping shouts] 529 00:29:38,783 --> 00:29:41,015 {\an8}[crowd roaring] 530 00:29:47,849 --> 00:29:49,086 - [Prince] Hello, good night. - [crowd cheering] 531 00:29:50,735 --> 00:29:53,757 [Simone] Prince plays his final show on April 14th, 2016. 532 00:29:53,928 --> 00:29:55,715 And it was clear that he was not doing well. 533 00:29:55,851 --> 00:29:58,875 [singing] Yee-hoo-hoo-ooh... 534 00:29:59,046 --> 00:30:00,969 [Chazz] He looks extremely thin. 535 00:30:01,142 --> 00:30:03,683 There's no man who should be weighing 90-something pounds. 536 00:30:03,854 --> 00:30:04,919 That was horrifying to me. 537 00:30:10,895 --> 00:30:12,921 [Dr. Drew] And the next day, he was on a private flight 538 00:30:13,094 --> 00:30:14,913 from Atlanta to his home in Minneapolis. 539 00:30:15,086 --> 00:30:17,421 Breaking news came on and said the plane had to do 540 00:30:17,592 --> 00:30:18,726 an emergency landing. 541 00:30:18,897 --> 00:30:20,615 And this is what got me when they said 542 00:30:21,782 --> 00:30:22,950 they gave him Narcan. 543 00:30:24,049 --> 00:30:25,183 They didn't say anything else behind it. 544 00:30:25,354 --> 00:30:26,591 I was going, what the hell is Narcan? 545 00:30:28,274 --> 00:30:30,266 One of my friends called me up and he told me, "man, 546 00:30:30,438 --> 00:30:33,563 Narcan brings a person back from opioid overdoses." 547 00:30:33,734 --> 00:30:35,109 I was like, "What?" 548 00:30:35,281 --> 00:30:36,688 What I remember most vividly 549 00:30:36,860 --> 00:30:39,882 was, I was telling everybody that this is addiction. 550 00:30:40,054 --> 00:30:41,290 I knew it. I could see it. 551 00:30:41,462 --> 00:30:43,317 And I knew he was in serious danger. 552 00:30:43,488 --> 00:30:44,622 - But Sarah, here's what I know. - No. 553 00:30:44,794 --> 00:30:46,545 Anytime a publicist says "dehydration," 554 00:30:46,717 --> 00:30:47,780 don't listen to it. 555 00:30:47,781 --> 00:30:49,670 Because adult, otherwise healthy young males 556 00:30:49,842 --> 00:30:51,387 don't get dehydration, number one. 557 00:30:51,594 --> 00:30:52,968 And number two, he didn't have the flu. 558 00:30:53,140 --> 00:30:54,376 Flu doesn't come and go. 559 00:30:54,513 --> 00:30:57,158 But drug withdrawal feels like the flu. 560 00:30:57,330 --> 00:30:59,356 I was saying it on HLN. I was saying it repeatedly. 561 00:30:59,493 --> 00:31:00,696 This is what they're gonna die of 562 00:31:00,867 --> 00:31:02,035 if they're young and healthy. 563 00:31:02,207 --> 00:31:04,233 Eight minutes up the road. 564 00:31:04,405 --> 00:31:07,222 Paisley Park is eight minutes. We looked this up. 565 00:31:07,392 --> 00:31:09,316 {\an8}It is eight minutes from Hazelden. 566 00:31:09,453 --> 00:31:10,896 The fact that no one was attending to it, I thought 567 00:31:11,068 --> 00:31:12,785 was a scandal. 568 00:31:12,957 --> 00:31:15,842 And he lived minutes from Hazelden, from one of 569 00:31:16,013 --> 00:31:18,074 the premier treatment centers in the country. 570 00:31:18,246 --> 00:31:21,166 And I kept saying, throw him in the trunk and take him 571 00:31:21,336 --> 00:31:22,745 to Hazelden. Do what you got to do. 572 00:31:22,917 --> 00:31:23,844 This guy's gonna die. 573 00:31:24,944 --> 00:31:27,312 Instead, a doctor named Howard Kornfeld, 574 00:31:27,450 --> 00:31:30,232 who did some addiction treatment, 575 00:31:31,365 --> 00:31:32,912 sent Suboxone. 576 00:31:33,083 --> 00:31:35,589 Suboxone is a replacement therapy for opiates 577 00:31:35,762 --> 00:31:36,999 of various types. 578 00:31:37,171 --> 00:31:39,746 It also is an excellent treatment for chronic pain. 579 00:31:39,917 --> 00:31:41,875 [Bill] But Kornfeld couldn't come. He was tied up. 580 00:31:42,047 --> 00:31:43,661 He could not go to Minnesota. 581 00:31:43,833 --> 00:31:47,851 So he sent his son to Minnesota to see Prince. 582 00:31:48,023 --> 00:31:48,951 Scandalous. 583 00:31:49,123 --> 00:31:51,011 Some guy flies out from San Francisco. 584 00:31:51,184 --> 00:31:52,315 Wild! 585 00:31:52,316 --> 00:31:54,618 Taking drugs across state lines in a backpack. 586 00:31:54,789 --> 00:31:56,128 This was insanity. 587 00:31:56,266 --> 00:31:57,983 Hazelden was right down the street. 588 00:31:58,155 --> 00:31:59,906 Throw him in the car. Go to Hazelden. 589 00:32:00,079 --> 00:32:01,075 Get treatment. That's it. 590 00:32:19,724 --> 00:32:20,720 When my wife called me, 591 00:32:25,117 --> 00:32:26,180 I fell to my knees. 592 00:32:27,761 --> 00:32:30,370 That feeling overwhelmed me. I couldn't even-- 593 00:32:30,543 --> 00:32:32,844 I couldn't even breathe. 594 00:32:35,247 --> 00:32:40,297 [Dr. Drew] What I remember most vividly was Van Jones on my HLN program 595 00:32:40,468 --> 00:32:43,181 breaking down and sobbing at his friend's death. 596 00:32:44,314 --> 00:32:45,379 {\an8}There were so many things... 597 00:32:46,925 --> 00:32:47,921 {\an8}that... 598 00:32:48,058 --> 00:32:49,055 {\an8}[woman] Oh... 599 00:32:49,225 --> 00:32:51,905 {\an8}...that he was trying to do now, 600 00:32:53,484 --> 00:32:58,259 {\an8}and he cared so much just about ordinary people. 601 00:32:58,431 --> 00:33:00,354 {\an8}You've seen the streets of when he passed away of 602 00:33:00,526 --> 00:33:03,238 downtown Minneapolis. Wasn't one fight. 603 00:33:06,845 --> 00:33:07,841 In New York. 604 00:33:10,073 --> 00:33:11,070 {\an8}Fans. 605 00:33:12,203 --> 00:33:15,020 LA, packed in the streets. 606 00:33:15,191 --> 00:33:16,324 That was Prince. 607 00:33:17,561 --> 00:33:19,897 There were a lot of rumors and speculation swirling 608 00:33:20,068 --> 00:33:21,441 {\an8}after Prince's death. 609 00:33:21,614 --> 00:33:23,846 {\an8}The decision was made to process the scene. 610 00:33:23,983 --> 00:33:27,658 One of them that his death was linked to an addiction 611 00:33:27,830 --> 00:33:28,998 to painkillers. 612 00:33:29,170 --> 00:33:32,226 {\an8}Results from that autopsy may take several weeks. 613 00:33:32,398 --> 00:33:34,287 {\an8}[Bill] For sure, Prince believed he was taking 614 00:33:34,459 --> 00:33:36,519 {\an8}a legitimate pharmaceutical pill. 615 00:33:36,692 --> 00:33:39,369 But reality is Prince died of deception. 616 00:33:46,523 --> 00:33:49,821 [Bill] The autopsy lists accidental fentanyl ingestion 617 00:33:49,992 --> 00:33:50,954 as the cause of death. 618 00:33:52,053 --> 00:33:54,423 {\an8}Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. 619 00:33:59,815 --> 00:34:02,013 We used to use it mostly in ICUs. 620 00:34:02,150 --> 00:34:05,069 {\an8}Used as part of a regime for anesthesia, like when 621 00:34:05,207 --> 00:34:06,855 {\an8}you're going under anesthesia. 622 00:34:07,027 --> 00:34:09,741 Fentanyl is many times more powerful than heroin. 623 00:34:09,912 --> 00:34:12,351 Like 50 times more powerful than heroin. 624 00:34:12,523 --> 00:34:15,132 It's cheap to get and incredibly addictive. 625 00:34:17,605 --> 00:34:20,216 [Dr. Drew] But in 2016, fentanyl was rarely mentioned. 626 00:34:20,387 --> 00:34:22,620 It was heroin, Vicodin, OxyContin. 627 00:34:22,791 --> 00:34:24,714 Those are the opiates you heard about. 628 00:34:24,887 --> 00:34:27,600 [Bill] Prince was probably one of the first celebrity people that 629 00:34:27,772 --> 00:34:29,592 was victim of fentanyl here in the United States. 630 00:34:29,764 --> 00:34:32,168 Two milligrams or more is a potentially deadly dose. 631 00:34:32,340 --> 00:34:33,989 And that's like the tip of a pencil. 632 00:34:34,125 --> 00:34:36,324 That's really all it could take to kill you. 633 00:34:36,496 --> 00:34:39,311 {\an8}They said that you can have a little grain about this big, 634 00:34:39,483 --> 00:34:40,823 {\an8}and you can die from it. 635 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:42,541 And they said he had enough of them to kill an elephant. 636 00:34:57,996 --> 00:35:01,980 So, because of the nature of Prince's death, police officers 637 00:35:02,151 --> 00:35:04,006 decided to serve a search warrant there. 638 00:35:04,178 --> 00:35:06,615 And they found a lot of drugs in the house, in all different 639 00:35:06,788 --> 00:35:10,016 {\an8}places around the house, and all packaged in a way to 640 00:35:10,188 --> 00:35:12,729 kind of try to conceal what they actually were. 641 00:35:15,099 --> 00:35:17,401 Dr. Schulenberg's name, one of Prince's doctors, 642 00:35:17,572 --> 00:35:19,599 his name came up pretty quickly because of 643 00:35:19,770 --> 00:35:22,106 some of the prescriptions found in the house. 644 00:35:24,543 --> 00:35:26,468 [Dr. Drew] This is a surveillance video of Prince visiting 645 00:35:26,639 --> 00:35:28,253 his physician the day before he died. 646 00:35:31,241 --> 00:35:32,444 That's Dr. Schulenberg... 647 00:35:34,436 --> 00:35:38,282 seeing Prince with his bodyguard. 648 00:35:38,455 --> 00:35:40,617 This is Dr. Schulenberg. 649 00:35:42,198 --> 00:35:46,148 Dr. Michael Schulenberg prescribed Vicodin for Prince, 650 00:35:46,319 --> 00:35:48,174 but in the name of his bodyguard. 651 00:35:49,857 --> 00:35:52,364 That is unethical. That is fraud. 652 00:35:52,535 --> 00:35:53,669 This is that weird thing again. 653 00:35:53,806 --> 00:35:55,661 I've seen doctors go, "Oh, oh, 654 00:35:55,833 --> 00:35:56,897 "you don't want to be public about this? 655 00:35:57,068 --> 00:35:58,134 We'll just use somebody else's name." 656 00:35:58,306 --> 00:36:01,225 That is bullshit! Doctors should never do that. 657 00:36:10,772 --> 00:36:13,590 [Chazz] That disturbed me to the core because I was going, 658 00:36:13,726 --> 00:36:15,134 why do you have to-- 659 00:36:15,306 --> 00:36:16,955 if Prince is in pain and he really needed 660 00:36:17,126 --> 00:36:19,153 something to help him, 661 00:36:19,324 --> 00:36:21,558 why do we have to-- why do you have to forge and lie 662 00:36:21,729 --> 00:36:23,824 and do stuff? Why not be upfront about it? 663 00:36:25,438 --> 00:36:27,534 However, the pill that killed Prince, 664 00:36:27,670 --> 00:36:29,319 or contributed to his death, 665 00:36:29,491 --> 00:36:32,891 was clearly not something prescribed by Dr. Schulenberg 666 00:36:33,062 --> 00:36:36,086 because he was prescribing pharmaceutical oxycodone, 667 00:36:36,257 --> 00:36:37,974 which does not have fentanyl. 668 00:36:38,146 --> 00:36:39,622 So where did the fentanyl come from? 669 00:36:41,545 --> 00:36:44,946 While the police searched the house, they did find 670 00:36:45,118 --> 00:36:46,800 counterfeit pills at Prince's house. 671 00:36:48,930 --> 00:36:50,442 Sometimes people will refer to 672 00:36:50,578 --> 00:36:53,910 them as prescription drugs laced with fentanyl. 673 00:36:54,083 --> 00:36:55,696 And I really push back. That's not the case. 674 00:36:55,868 --> 00:36:59,200 The only active ingredient in these pills is fentanyl. 675 00:36:59,371 --> 00:37:01,534 It's not like someone took a real Vicodin 676 00:37:01,707 --> 00:37:04,866 or a real oxycodone and added fentanyl to it. 677 00:37:05,038 --> 00:37:07,510 It's just much cheaper to make a pill that looks like those 678 00:37:07,683 --> 00:37:09,537 other pills and do it just with fentanyl. 679 00:37:09,709 --> 00:37:12,045 So Prince believed he was taking a legitimate 680 00:37:12,217 --> 00:37:15,342 pharmaceutical pill, probably a Vicodin or an oxycodone. 681 00:37:15,478 --> 00:37:18,913 He didn't know that he was taking a pill where fentanyl 682 00:37:19,085 --> 00:37:20,116 was the active ingredient. 683 00:37:22,315 --> 00:37:23,378 Man. 684 00:37:25,439 --> 00:37:26,882 {\an8}[producer speaking] 685 00:37:27,053 --> 00:37:28,324 Heck yeah, it's a lot. 686 00:37:30,762 --> 00:37:32,308 They showed us what the pills looked like. 687 00:37:33,544 --> 00:37:34,850 Next to each other, a real one, 688 00:37:36,052 --> 00:37:38,627 fake, looked exactly alike. 689 00:37:40,243 --> 00:37:42,028 There was no way Prince knew what he was taking. 690 00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:45,394 It was just-- it would have fooled everybody. 691 00:37:45,565 --> 00:37:48,382 The investigators tried to look at phone records. 692 00:37:48,553 --> 00:37:52,057 They did search warrants to look at who people were calling 693 00:37:52,195 --> 00:37:54,666 up until Prince's death. 694 00:37:54,838 --> 00:37:57,037 They looked at the bodyguard's phone. 695 00:37:57,174 --> 00:37:59,063 The reality is, they never found out 696 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:00,711 who supplied the fentanyl to Prince. 697 00:38:00,883 --> 00:38:06,035 {\an8}This is the death of one of the most high-profile musicians 698 00:38:06,173 --> 00:38:08,989 to ever live, and we still don't know who killed him? 699 00:38:09,126 --> 00:38:11,565 We don't know how he got these pills? 700 00:38:11,736 --> 00:38:13,110 [Chazz] We wanted the people that did this... 701 00:38:15,343 --> 00:38:16,339 to admit it 702 00:38:17,987 --> 00:38:19,464 and take responsibility for it. 703 00:38:21,662 --> 00:38:22,658 That has to happen. 704 00:38:28,703 --> 00:38:30,832 [Dr. Drew] There were many physicians along the way who enabled 705 00:38:31,004 --> 00:38:32,206 the addiction that led to his death. 706 00:38:33,477 --> 00:38:36,397 So there's plenty of blame to go around here. 707 00:38:36,567 --> 00:38:38,011 And yet, 708 00:38:38,148 --> 00:38:40,003 we live in a world where the addict gets blamed for 709 00:38:40,140 --> 00:38:41,891 their disease and even their death. 710 00:38:43,677 --> 00:38:45,017 There are a lot of celebrity deaths that 711 00:38:45,188 --> 00:38:46,458 we've never solved, right? 712 00:38:46,631 --> 00:38:48,657 That we don't know who is responsible. 713 00:38:48,829 --> 00:38:49,860 There's been no accountability. 714 00:38:51,130 --> 00:38:52,298 [Dr. Drew] If we held... 715 00:38:53,535 --> 00:38:56,625 suppliers accountable for the deaths downstream from 716 00:38:56,797 --> 00:38:59,888 the drugs they supply, there would be a lot of people 717 00:39:00,026 --> 00:39:03,632 in serious trouble that skate these days. 718 00:39:06,071 --> 00:39:08,783 I would like to see that. I would love to see that. 719 00:39:08,921 --> 00:39:10,673 But that would be... 720 00:39:10,844 --> 00:39:12,767 It's-- look, it's murder. 721 00:39:19,018 --> 00:39:20,015 {\an8}[Mack] As a federal prosecutor, 722 00:39:20,186 --> 00:39:21,492 {\an8}I worked at the US Attorney's Office 723 00:39:21,663 --> 00:39:24,170 {\an8}in what's called the Central District of California. 724 00:39:24,343 --> 00:39:25,922 We served the largest population. 725 00:39:26,986 --> 00:39:27,983 {\an8}[producer speaking] 726 00:39:35,436 --> 00:39:36,671 Yes, is the short answer. 727 00:39:38,767 --> 00:39:40,553 So I was the chief of the criminal division 728 00:39:40,724 --> 00:39:42,751 at the time at the US Attorney's Office, 729 00:39:42,888 --> 00:39:45,430 and the lead prosecutor on the case, Ian Yanniello, 730 00:39:47,525 --> 00:39:49,895 came in one day and said he got a call from LAPD. 731 00:39:50,066 --> 00:39:51,303 [phone ringing] 732 00:39:52,470 --> 00:39:54,154 They told Ian about the significant case. 733 00:39:56,180 --> 00:39:57,176 And that case... 734 00:39:58,961 --> 00:40:00,370 was the death of a celebrity, 735 00:40:01,469 --> 00:40:02,465 Matthew Perry. 736 00:40:09,234 --> 00:40:10,780 [slate] B, C, and X common mark. 737 00:40:10,952 --> 00:40:12,188 {\an8}No, she was not as fat. 738 00:40:14,386 --> 00:40:17,031 {\an8}Matthew Perry was most known for his role as Chandler Bing 739 00:40:17,168 --> 00:40:18,163 {\an8}on "Friends." 740 00:40:18,164 --> 00:40:19,744 Weddings are a great place to meet women, 741 00:40:19,916 --> 00:40:22,492 and when I dance, I look like this. 742 00:40:22,663 --> 00:40:25,687 [audience laughs] 743 00:40:25,857 --> 00:40:28,227 Of course, I watched "Friends" on right after 744 00:40:28,399 --> 00:40:29,464 {\an8}"Seinfeld" back in the day. 745 00:40:29,636 --> 00:40:31,388 {\an8}It was impossible to miss "Friends." 746 00:40:31,559 --> 00:40:32,417 {\an8}It was everywhere. 747 00:40:32,589 --> 00:40:33,860 We're friends. I mean, we're six 748 00:40:33,997 --> 00:40:37,226 different people that seem to gel pretty well. 749 00:40:37,398 --> 00:40:40,764 We're talking about a show that shaped hairstyles. 750 00:40:40,935 --> 00:40:44,094 It shaped language that we still use today. 751 00:40:44,266 --> 00:40:45,434 [interviewer in the distance] You guys all like-- 752 00:40:45,607 --> 00:40:48,182 Yes, yes, for the last time, we are all actually 753 00:40:48,353 --> 00:40:49,591 good friends. Thank you. 754 00:40:49,762 --> 00:40:51,308 It's one of the most successful shows 755 00:40:51,479 --> 00:40:53,815 in the history of television. 756 00:40:53,952 --> 00:40:55,910 {\an8}[interviewer speaking] 757 00:40:58,863 --> 00:41:00,478 No, nothing special. 758 00:41:00,649 --> 00:41:05,148 No, yeah, we had a really good idea that this had a very good 759 00:41:05,321 --> 00:41:08,480 shot at at least having a chance at being successful. 760 00:41:08,652 --> 00:41:12,326 That show, that role was so larger than life. 761 00:41:12,498 --> 00:41:16,414 It really eclipsed his career and was the role that most 762 00:41:16,585 --> 00:41:18,990 people think of when they think of his name. 763 00:41:19,161 --> 00:41:21,291 {\an8}[interviewer speaking] 764 00:41:21,463 --> 00:41:24,897 I follow that to a freakish degree, actually, 765 00:41:25,068 --> 00:41:26,923 because the numbers are actually good, 766 00:41:27,095 --> 00:41:28,984 and all my other shows, the, uh-- 767 00:41:29,156 --> 00:41:30,907 I think the last show I did, we were ranked 83rd 768 00:41:31,079 --> 00:41:32,453 out of 83 shows every time. 769 00:41:32,625 --> 00:41:35,545 So now that there's good news, I call up and tell everybody. 770 00:41:35,716 --> 00:41:39,631 [Dr. Drew] Matthew Perry was a beloved actor, 771 00:41:39,769 --> 00:41:42,172 and he had bad addiction. 772 00:41:42,344 --> 00:41:46,465 I only knew about it from talk in the treatment community. 773 00:41:46,638 --> 00:41:49,489 People were asking me for, you know, advice and things. 774 00:41:49,660 --> 00:41:51,171 [interviewer] Tell me what it's all about. 775 00:41:51,343 --> 00:41:54,056 {\an8}Well, it's all about people in their 30s and their 40s who are 776 00:41:54,227 --> 00:41:56,013 {\an8}kinda broken people. 777 00:41:56,185 --> 00:41:59,001 I play a character named Jack who is a drunk. 778 00:42:00,307 --> 00:42:02,093 [Dr. Drew] The research I've done, and I have the only published 779 00:42:02,264 --> 00:42:05,219 literature on this, suggests that typically people 780 00:42:05,390 --> 00:42:07,896 that pursue celebrity have childhood trauma. 781 00:42:08,069 --> 00:42:10,885 There are some experiences that are in my own life 782 00:42:11,057 --> 00:42:12,396 that are shared in the play. 783 00:42:12,568 --> 00:42:15,041 With Matthew Perry, we don't know what 784 00:42:15,213 --> 00:42:16,621 the issue was, really. 785 00:42:16,792 --> 00:42:19,163 I grew up in Canada 786 00:42:19,334 --> 00:42:22,459 with my mom, so I didn't really see my dad a whole lot. 787 00:42:22,597 --> 00:42:24,073 [announcer] Wake up with Old Spice. 788 00:42:24,245 --> 00:42:25,345 [Matthew] He was the Old Spice man. 789 00:42:27,302 --> 00:42:29,398 And the way I would see my dad was on television. 790 00:42:29,535 --> 00:42:32,969 He would call me up and say, "so I'm getting shot on 'Mannix' 791 00:42:33,141 --> 00:42:36,507 on Thursday night, so tune in." And I think I generated kind of 792 00:42:36,643 --> 00:42:38,499 a respect for the business that way, because it was through 793 00:42:38,635 --> 00:42:40,353 the television that I got to see my dad. 794 00:42:42,792 --> 00:42:45,368 [Dr. Drew] That aloneness and emptiness, 795 00:42:46,707 --> 00:42:50,966 that injury and that deficiency that that creates, people try 796 00:42:51,138 --> 00:42:56,290 to fill that with performing, and an audience and celebrity, 797 00:42:56,427 --> 00:42:57,834 and it doesn't work. 798 00:42:58,007 --> 00:43:01,270 And they think fame is supposed to solve that trauma, 799 00:43:01,408 --> 00:43:04,532 which it does not, and provides ample opportunity 800 00:43:04,704 --> 00:43:06,283 for the addiction to flourish. 801 00:43:06,421 --> 00:43:08,173 [interviewer] I've interviewed actually a lot of the cast members 802 00:43:08,344 --> 00:43:12,535 from the "Friends" show, and when did it sink in that 803 00:43:12,706 --> 00:43:15,042 your lives weren't quite gonna be the same? 804 00:43:15,214 --> 00:43:17,858 Well, I guess the show really, uh... 805 00:43:18,029 --> 00:43:21,328 became huge in between the first and second season. 806 00:43:21,464 --> 00:43:24,589 In that summer, I went, "Whoa, this is a little bit more 807 00:43:24,762 --> 00:43:26,856 "than a hit show. This is... 808 00:43:27,029 --> 00:43:29,192 "This is something that people are really taking an interest 809 00:43:29,330 --> 00:43:30,806 in, and it's terrific." 810 00:43:30,978 --> 00:43:32,248 [man speaking faintly] Can you put the-- 811 00:43:32,386 --> 00:43:33,863 That is a great idea. 812 00:43:34,034 --> 00:43:37,812 In 1997, while also filming "Friends," Matthew Perry was in 813 00:43:37,984 --> 00:43:40,045 a movie called "Fools Rush In." 814 00:43:40,216 --> 00:43:42,690 - Imagine, yeah. - [all] Ah! 815 00:43:42,861 --> 00:43:44,269 Funny, very funny. 816 00:43:44,441 --> 00:43:48,013 A lot of the humor came from this dynamic 817 00:43:48,185 --> 00:43:49,421 between this white guy... 818 00:43:51,242 --> 00:43:54,436 Lucy, you got some explaining to do. 819 00:43:54,607 --> 00:43:56,771 [Lucy] Oh, my God. 820 00:43:56,943 --> 00:43:58,866 ...interacting with a Mexican family. 821 00:43:59,038 --> 00:44:02,300 [man] He fell into some cactus, a lot of cactus. 822 00:44:02,472 --> 00:44:04,189 During the filming, he unfortunately was in 823 00:44:04,361 --> 00:44:05,289 a jet-ski accident. 824 00:44:06,628 --> 00:44:08,655 As a result of his back injury, 825 00:44:08,826 --> 00:44:11,024 and like so many people at that period of history, 826 00:44:12,226 --> 00:44:15,592 were given tremendous doses of opioids 827 00:44:15,764 --> 00:44:17,344 for a minor pain syndrome. 828 00:44:17,516 --> 00:44:20,263 And if you have the potential for addiction, 829 00:44:20,434 --> 00:44:21,362 now it's gonna start. 830 00:44:23,389 --> 00:44:24,694 Now it's gonna escalate. 831 00:44:25,415 --> 00:44:29,537 The public during the last year of "Friends," you were starting 832 00:44:29,709 --> 00:44:31,185 to hear about something, that something was up. 833 00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:37,058 I remember seeing Matthew Perry struggle very publicly 834 00:44:37,230 --> 00:44:39,222 with addiction throughout the years. 835 00:44:39,394 --> 00:44:40,458 [reporter #1] What's up, Matthew? 836 00:44:40,630 --> 00:44:42,105 - Hey. - [reporter #2] How are you, man? 837 00:44:42,106 --> 00:44:45,370 [Simon] Over the course of 30 years, Matthew Perry would undergo 838 00:44:45,541 --> 00:44:50,727 about 15 rehab stints and spend roughly $9 million 839 00:44:50,900 --> 00:44:52,169 on recovery efforts. 840 00:44:52,342 --> 00:44:53,818 Frankly, it's an embarrassment. 841 00:44:53,956 --> 00:44:56,841 It should not cost a lot of money. 842 00:44:56,978 --> 00:44:57,974 You're wasting the money. 843 00:45:02,988 --> 00:45:05,359 [Shalini] I grew up seeing these celebrity stories 844 00:45:05,530 --> 00:45:06,972 and going into rehab, coming out, 845 00:45:07,145 --> 00:45:08,278 going back into rehab, coming out. 846 00:45:08,449 --> 00:45:10,235 And in my head, you just thought, 847 00:45:10,407 --> 00:45:12,881 "OK, well, this is something that happens to celebrities." 848 00:45:13,052 --> 00:45:16,211 And you kinda had the sense of, well, they're probably not 849 00:45:16,383 --> 00:45:17,551 trying hard enough. 850 00:45:17,723 --> 00:45:20,024 {\an8}But in fact, as I started learning more about it, 851 00:45:20,195 --> 00:45:22,462 {\an8}the financial motivations of the people who own some 852 00:45:22,634 --> 00:45:25,725 of these luxury rehab centers is not necessarily to get 853 00:45:25,862 --> 00:45:28,025 these people well, but to actually have them keep 854 00:45:28,198 --> 00:45:30,155 coming back so that they can continue 855 00:45:30,327 --> 00:45:31,461 making money off of them. 856 00:45:32,801 --> 00:45:35,102 So the reality is that these luxury rehab centers, 857 00:45:35,273 --> 00:45:38,364 they are made to attract these high-end clients. 858 00:45:38,536 --> 00:45:41,662 So they have equine therapy, they have horses, 859 00:45:41,798 --> 00:45:45,439 they have sound baths and like organic chefs. 860 00:45:45,612 --> 00:45:47,191 And they say, like, celebrities can have 861 00:45:47,363 --> 00:45:49,630 their phone, they can use their laptop. 862 00:45:49,766 --> 00:45:52,273 Someone charged $80,000 a month, 863 00:45:52,446 --> 00:45:53,990 which is a lot of money. 864 00:45:54,163 --> 00:45:56,361 And you expect, when you pay that much 865 00:45:56,533 --> 00:45:58,491 as top-notch medical care, 866 00:45:58,662 --> 00:46:00,070 that you're gonna get better. 867 00:46:00,241 --> 00:46:03,127 But typically, it doesn't actually help the celebrities 868 00:46:03,299 --> 00:46:06,355 get better, but in fact makes them relapse 869 00:46:06,527 --> 00:46:08,622 into their addiction. 870 00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:12,537 I've seen billing for services not conducted. 871 00:46:12,675 --> 00:46:16,419 I've seen facilities where they maintain stashes of drugs 872 00:46:16,590 --> 00:46:19,614 at the places and distribute the drugs to patients. 873 00:46:19,784 --> 00:46:22,257 Sometimes it's illicit drugs, sometimes it's prescription 874 00:46:22,429 --> 00:46:25,486 drugs that are administered without prescription. 875 00:46:25,623 --> 00:46:28,577 Or there's people using drugs in the facility while you're 876 00:46:28,714 --> 00:46:30,019 trying to stay sober. 877 00:46:31,187 --> 00:46:35,206 I mean, one case that we wrote about, a woman was able to get 878 00:46:35,377 --> 00:46:38,400 Postmates delivery of drugs to her. 879 00:46:38,537 --> 00:46:41,594 They're a way to kind of get a piece of the Hollywood money, 880 00:46:41,765 --> 00:46:43,208 and it's really, really sad. 881 00:46:43,380 --> 00:46:46,299 Many of them are for-profit businesses who benefit 882 00:46:46,470 --> 00:46:51,622 from the revolving-door nature of addiction and recovery. 883 00:46:51,794 --> 00:46:53,820 This is what happened with Matthew Perry. 884 00:46:53,992 --> 00:46:57,976 [Bill] The fact that he went to so many rehabs, and spent so much money, 885 00:46:58,147 --> 00:46:59,625 I wonder, you know, were there times 886 00:46:59,796 --> 00:47:01,067 when he was taken advantage of? 887 00:47:01,240 --> 00:47:05,498 Were there times that he was exploited, 888 00:47:05,669 --> 00:47:09,414 {\an8}victimized, because he was a vulnerable person with a lot 889 00:47:09,585 --> 00:47:11,714 of money, willing to spend it 890 00:47:11,885 --> 00:47:13,775 with the hopes of getting better? 891 00:47:13,946 --> 00:47:16,660 I fear that in some cases that probably happened to him. 892 00:47:18,686 --> 00:47:20,644 [Dr. Drew] And eventually got to the point where he was taking 893 00:47:20,816 --> 00:47:22,808 50, 55 tablets a day. 894 00:47:22,979 --> 00:47:25,658 {\an8}55 Vicodin a day, which is where I was. 895 00:47:25,829 --> 00:47:27,616 {\an8}- 55? - Yeah. 896 00:47:28,922 --> 00:47:32,322 This interview with Diane Sawyer is the first time 897 00:47:32,493 --> 00:47:36,202 that we, as the public, actually got to understand 898 00:47:36,340 --> 00:47:39,191 the full extent of his addiction. 899 00:47:39,328 --> 00:47:40,874 I did all sorts of things. 900 00:47:41,045 --> 00:47:43,278 I had a bunch of doctors and fake 901 00:47:44,308 --> 00:47:46,332 migraines and all that stuff. 902 00:47:46,333 --> 00:47:47,948 He was doctor shopping. 903 00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:50,112 If someone couldn't provide him 904 00:47:50,250 --> 00:47:52,791 with the drugs that he needed, he would go to someone else. 905 00:47:52,963 --> 00:47:57,394 He would go to absurd lengths to acquire these pills. 906 00:47:57,565 --> 00:48:00,210 And I guess the weirdest thing I did was, on Sundays, I would 907 00:48:00,381 --> 00:48:05,738 go to open houses and go to the bathrooms in the open house 908 00:48:05,911 --> 00:48:09,448 and see what pills they had in there and steal them. 909 00:48:09,620 --> 00:48:11,714 [Dr. Drew] Standard oral opiate addict. 910 00:48:11,887 --> 00:48:15,424 And then stealing from family, friends, open houses, that's-- 911 00:48:15,597 --> 00:48:16,901 he learned that from somebody. 912 00:48:17,074 --> 00:48:18,172 Somebody gave him that technique. 913 00:48:19,134 --> 00:48:23,701 I was rushed to the hospital because I was in intense 914 00:48:23,873 --> 00:48:24,835 pain. 915 00:48:25,007 --> 00:48:28,201 It was in there that my colon exploded. 916 00:48:28,372 --> 00:48:31,601 Matthew Perry suffered a complication of opiate use 917 00:48:31,772 --> 00:48:37,405 where the colon stops moving, ruptures, causes peritonitis, 918 00:48:37,578 --> 00:48:39,122 and then sepsis. 919 00:48:39,295 --> 00:48:42,214 And in his case, he was given about a 2% chance of surviving, 920 00:48:42,385 --> 00:48:44,549 was in a coma for an extended period of time, 921 00:48:44,721 --> 00:48:45,923 but did ultimately survive. 922 00:48:46,129 --> 00:48:47,193 My health is good. 923 00:48:47,194 --> 00:48:49,426 My health is good. I'm doing really well now. 924 00:48:49,598 --> 00:48:52,586 How will we know when you're in trouble, 925 00:48:52,758 --> 00:48:53,891 when you're not OK? 926 00:48:55,300 --> 00:48:59,180 He presented this image to the public of health. 927 00:48:59,352 --> 00:49:03,644 But as we now know, that turned out to not be true. 928 00:49:03,817 --> 00:49:06,530 Is if I ever say I'm cured. 929 00:49:08,969 --> 00:49:11,819 He strikes me as depressed. He does not strike me as sober. 930 00:49:11,956 --> 00:49:13,914 It's not fun to talk about this stuff. 931 00:49:14,051 --> 00:49:16,422 I don't like talking about it. 932 00:49:16,593 --> 00:49:19,135 [Dr. Drew] He's not talking about his recovery. 933 00:49:19,306 --> 00:49:20,783 He just seems to be still suffering. 934 00:49:37,372 --> 00:49:39,811 {\an8}[woman #1] It was really heartbreaking when I found out 935 00:49:39,947 --> 00:49:42,112 you don't know him, but you feel like you do know him. 936 00:49:43,862 --> 00:49:45,409 [woman #2] He just kind of seemed like that funny friend 937 00:49:45,580 --> 00:49:46,817 that everybody has. 938 00:49:48,225 --> 00:49:51,454 He was just a very unique character, and I don't think 939 00:49:51,625 --> 00:49:53,308 anyone else could have really played that. 940 00:49:53,481 --> 00:49:55,232 I honestly don't know how to react to this. 941 00:49:57,155 --> 00:49:58,391 [sobbing] 942 00:49:58,563 --> 00:50:02,272 I just wanna appreciate him for giving 943 00:50:04,092 --> 00:50:07,356 one of the best comedic performances in history. 944 00:50:11,236 --> 00:50:14,190 {\an8}I really also wanna mention someone that's not here today. 945 00:50:14,361 --> 00:50:15,530 {\an8}And that's Matthew Perry, 946 00:50:17,179 --> 00:50:20,131 {\an8}who was so kind and generous with me while we worked 947 00:50:20,304 --> 00:50:21,677 on "17 Again." 948 00:50:23,292 --> 00:50:24,425 It was so much fun. 949 00:50:24,597 --> 00:50:26,864 And it really did propel me and motivate me, 950 00:50:27,035 --> 00:50:29,406 uh, in so many ways. 951 00:50:29,576 --> 00:50:31,981 It really pushed me into the next chapter of my career. 952 00:50:32,152 --> 00:50:34,659 And for that, thank you so much, Matthew. 953 00:50:34,832 --> 00:50:35,999 I'm thinking about you a lot today. 954 00:50:58,838 --> 00:51:01,757 [Mack] One of my first thoughts is, like, such a tragedy ending 955 00:51:01,930 --> 00:51:04,643 {\an8}to what could have been a great story of redemption. 956 00:51:13,092 --> 00:51:15,222 A human life was lost. 957 00:51:15,393 --> 00:51:17,179 {\an8}And often our response and ability is, 958 00:51:17,352 --> 00:51:18,210 {\an8}what can we do about it? 959 00:51:20,648 --> 00:51:21,609 [radio beeps] 960 00:51:21,781 --> 00:51:24,392 {\an8}♪ 961 00:51:24,528 --> 00:51:27,002 {\an8}[police speaking over radio] 962 00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:31,261 And so it was very important for us, in this case 963 00:51:31,398 --> 00:51:33,973 in particular, to figure out, did a crime occur? 964 00:51:40,984 --> 00:51:42,015 [Bill] Earlier that day, 965 00:51:44,041 --> 00:51:48,952 October 28, 2023, Matthew Perry's at home. 966 00:51:49,124 --> 00:51:51,356 His live-in assistant is at home, Kenneth Iwamasa. 967 00:51:53,073 --> 00:51:56,647 Iwamasa later finds Perry face down floating in the hot tub. 968 00:51:58,912 --> 00:52:00,904 [Mack] And early on, there were some indications that it was 969 00:52:01,076 --> 00:52:02,964 an overdose death. 970 00:52:03,137 --> 00:52:05,988 [Bill] I thought for sure that this was gonna be a fentanyl 971 00:52:06,159 --> 00:52:07,774 overdose, but it was different 972 00:52:07,945 --> 00:52:09,353 than I think what we all initially thought. 973 00:52:15,398 --> 00:52:16,532 [eerie chord plays] 974 00:52:18,868 --> 00:52:21,752 {\an8}So this is the death certificate of Matthew Perry. 975 00:52:23,778 --> 00:52:26,458 {\an8}Overdose death, ketamine poisoning, 976 00:52:26,595 --> 00:52:27,694 is essentially what it was. 977 00:52:32,159 --> 00:52:34,391 [Dr. Drew] Ketamine doesn't fall into the three common buckets 978 00:52:34,529 --> 00:52:36,658 of addictive drugs. It's not an opioid. 979 00:52:36,830 --> 00:52:38,375 It's a dissociative anesthetic. 980 00:52:40,024 --> 00:52:43,080 {\an8}Ketamine infusions are associated with improved 981 00:52:43,252 --> 00:52:45,828 {\an8}outcomes for pain and depression. 982 00:52:48,301 --> 00:52:50,636 [Bill] Ketamine can only be advertised for use 983 00:52:50,809 --> 00:52:53,899 {\an8}as an anesthetic, but it is not against the law. 984 00:52:54,071 --> 00:52:56,441 {\an8}It's completely legal for a doctor to prescribe 985 00:52:56,612 --> 00:52:57,987 {\an8}ketamine for any reason at all. 986 00:53:00,425 --> 00:53:03,963 There's ketamine in the form of lozenges and lollipops, 987 00:53:04,134 --> 00:53:07,259 and it is used by some doctors to treat addiction. 988 00:53:08,633 --> 00:53:11,209 But also, ketamine became a party drug. 989 00:53:15,331 --> 00:53:18,078 [Dr. Drew] It's important to understand, there's no such thing 990 00:53:18,250 --> 00:53:19,864 as a good drug or a bad drug. 991 00:53:20,036 --> 00:53:24,363 There's just their biological effects on the human system 992 00:53:24,535 --> 00:53:26,252 and our relationship with those drugs. 993 00:53:26,390 --> 00:53:27,283 That's it. 994 00:53:27,454 --> 00:53:28,691 The drug itself isn't good or bad. 995 00:53:28,862 --> 00:53:30,134 It's just a molecule. 996 00:53:30,271 --> 00:53:32,331 If you have depression and you have a ketamine infusion and it 997 00:53:32,503 --> 00:53:34,598 helps with your depression, ketamine is good. 998 00:53:34,771 --> 00:53:36,763 If you're a drug addict and ketamine is part of 999 00:53:36,933 --> 00:53:38,686 the drugs you're taking indiscriminately, 1000 00:53:38,856 --> 00:53:39,750 it can kill you. 1001 00:53:40,952 --> 00:53:43,081 So, here is his autopsy report. 1002 00:53:43,219 --> 00:53:47,168 And on this file, you see he's not on fentanyl. 1003 00:53:47,306 --> 00:53:50,123 He's not on amphetamine. He's on lots of ketamine. 1004 00:53:55,824 --> 00:53:57,472 Studies show that in drug overdose deaths, 1005 00:53:57,643 --> 00:53:59,258 ketamine is rarely present. 1006 00:53:59,429 --> 00:54:02,452 And in 99.9% of cases where there is ketamine, 1007 00:54:02,624 --> 00:54:04,547 other drugs are detected. 1008 00:54:04,720 --> 00:54:06,437 Matthew Perry's death is no exception. 1009 00:54:08,085 --> 00:54:10,008 He's on benzodiazepines. 1010 00:54:10,145 --> 00:54:12,824 He's on a mood stabilizer, lamotrigine. 1011 00:54:12,996 --> 00:54:15,091 He's on antidepressants. 1012 00:54:15,263 --> 00:54:18,698 And he has advanced emphysema, and he's diabetic, and he has 1013 00:54:18,869 --> 00:54:21,720 coronary disease. He is a mess. 1014 00:54:21,891 --> 00:54:24,365 But what's important is the but-for cause of death, 1015 00:54:24,536 --> 00:54:27,352 meaning but-for the presence of ketamine in his body, 1016 00:54:27,524 --> 00:54:29,378 he would have lived at least one more day. 1017 00:54:30,992 --> 00:54:34,462 The ketamine was the factor that then kind of exacerbated 1018 00:54:34,634 --> 00:54:38,480 these other underlying issues that Matthew Perry had. 1019 00:54:38,653 --> 00:54:40,576 So ketamine was ruled the cause of death. 1020 00:54:42,293 --> 00:54:44,285 [faint chatter] 1021 00:54:46,071 --> 00:54:47,891 [Dr. Drew] When the pathology report came through, 1022 00:54:48,028 --> 00:54:49,127 immediately authorities wanted 1023 00:54:49,298 --> 00:54:51,600 to know where that ketamine was coming from. 1024 00:54:51,772 --> 00:54:53,970 And there was at least one other person present 1025 00:54:54,141 --> 00:54:55,103 when he passed. 1026 00:54:57,198 --> 00:54:59,740 Kenneth Iwamasa, Matthew Perry's assistant. 1027 00:55:02,109 --> 00:55:04,445 The LAPD talked to Kenneth Iwamasa, 1028 00:55:04,617 --> 00:55:07,020 who provided him some information about what happened 1029 00:55:08,533 --> 00:55:09,768 earlier in that day. 1030 00:55:09,906 --> 00:55:12,344 Kenneth had injected him three times with ketamine. 1031 00:55:14,543 --> 00:55:15,847 [Dr. Drew] This is unthinkable. 1032 00:55:15,848 --> 00:55:19,969 Kenneth had infused Matthew at 8:30 AM, 12:30 PM, at which 1033 00:55:20,141 --> 00:55:23,094 point Matthew asked Kenneth to get the hot tub ready 1034 00:55:23,266 --> 00:55:25,464 and "inject me, infuse a big one." 1035 00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:29,207 Which is only like an hour later. 1036 00:55:34,257 --> 00:55:37,210 People would wonder why Kenneth got to the point where he was 1037 00:55:37,382 --> 00:55:41,607 even considering or willing to do this, and I'm afraid Kenneth 1038 00:55:41,744 --> 00:55:43,014 was an unwitting dupe. 1039 00:55:45,316 --> 00:55:48,373 Somebody convinced Kenneth that this was a good idea, 1040 00:55:48,544 --> 00:55:50,399 and then the addict starts pushing it along a little 1041 00:55:50,571 --> 00:55:53,249 further, and he's afraid of losing his job, and he wants 1042 00:55:53,421 --> 00:55:55,345 to help Matthew, and he's seeing how he's suffering. 1043 00:55:57,680 --> 00:55:59,397 But he's not a medical professional. 1044 00:55:59,569 --> 00:56:01,458 This is exactly why he can't be doing this. 1045 00:56:01,630 --> 00:56:04,447 He doesn't understand the risks of what he's doing. 1046 00:56:04,618 --> 00:56:05,648 He's not trained. 1047 00:56:05,785 --> 00:56:07,159 There's no reason he should understand it. 1048 00:56:12,894 --> 00:56:15,436 [Mack] It was pretty clear, ultimately, who gave it to him, 1049 00:56:15,609 --> 00:56:16,639 and the case could have ended there. 1050 00:56:17,978 --> 00:56:20,759 But the LAPD is not satisfied with that. 1051 00:56:20,931 --> 00:56:22,718 They wanted to go farther and higher. 1052 00:56:24,641 --> 00:56:28,041 And so that was the focus. Where did you get it? 1053 00:56:28,213 --> 00:56:30,343 And then where did that person get it? 1054 00:56:32,780 --> 00:56:37,280 From the scene of the crime, one of the significant items 1055 00:56:37,452 --> 00:56:40,851 found were vials of ketamine, but they were also unmarked, 1056 00:56:41,951 --> 00:56:43,599 meaning that it did not appear to be 1057 00:56:43,771 --> 00:56:45,179 a legitimate prescription. 1058 00:56:45,351 --> 00:56:47,446 In addition, ketamine lozenges 1059 00:56:47,583 --> 00:56:49,678 were prescribed to someone not named Matthew Perry. 1060 00:56:50,915 --> 00:56:53,353 So search warrants and subpoenas were executed to 1061 00:56:53,491 --> 00:56:55,964 get phone records for Kenneth Iwamasa's phone, 1062 00:56:56,135 --> 00:56:58,540 and you start to see conversations 1063 00:56:58,711 --> 00:57:00,771 with a doctor named Salvador Plasencia. 1064 00:57:06,268 --> 00:57:08,843 {\an8}Dr. Salvador Plasencia graduated from 1065 00:57:09,014 --> 00:57:11,659 {\an8}UCLA Medical School in 2010 and... 1066 00:57:11,831 --> 00:57:13,892 ...was actually an internal medicine doctor, 1067 00:57:14,064 --> 00:57:15,574 like, an urgent care doctor. 1068 00:57:15,747 --> 00:57:17,773 But his background wasn't in ketamine. 1069 00:57:26,497 --> 00:57:29,038 We met with Dr. Plasencia. 1070 00:57:29,209 --> 00:57:32,302 He agreed to provide information that explains some of the text 1071 00:57:32,473 --> 00:57:34,773 messages he had with Mr. Iwamasa. 1072 00:57:35,804 --> 00:57:38,071 [Dr. Drew] So Dr. Plasencia was approached 1073 00:57:38,243 --> 00:57:39,788 by Matthew Perry for ketamine. 1074 00:57:40,921 --> 00:57:42,947 Dr. Plasencia went to his colleague, 1075 00:57:43,120 --> 00:57:46,760 Dr. Chavez, who actually ran a ketamine infusion center 1076 00:57:46,931 --> 00:57:48,031 for depression. 1077 00:57:48,203 --> 00:57:49,300 [Mack] Which means he has a lot of 1078 00:57:49,301 --> 00:57:51,431 access to both to ketamine, but also to patients 1079 00:57:51,603 --> 00:57:53,114 who are potential victims. 1080 00:57:53,251 --> 00:57:56,652 Now we had two doctors potentially involved in 1081 00:57:56,823 --> 00:57:59,090 {\an8}basically, trafficking ketamine. 1082 00:58:01,528 --> 00:58:04,379 {\an8}[Bill] DEA went to his place of business to do an audit. 1083 00:58:04,552 --> 00:58:07,195 {\an8}And they find out that there's ketamine missing. 1084 00:58:07,367 --> 00:58:10,286 And they confront him and they ask him what happened to it. 1085 00:58:10,459 --> 00:58:13,343 And he says he threw them out after they melted 1086 00:58:13,515 --> 00:58:16,194 or got destroyed because he left them in his car 1087 00:58:16,366 --> 00:58:18,049 and it got really hot. 1088 00:58:18,186 --> 00:58:23,098 And he told a lie there because the drug was redistributed. 1089 00:58:23,234 --> 00:58:25,605 It was redistributed right to Dr. Plasencia 1090 00:58:25,776 --> 00:58:27,253 and Matthew Perry. 1091 00:58:29,074 --> 00:58:33,950 [Dr. Drew] Dr. Plasencia and Dr. Chavez could have been well-meaning. 1092 00:58:34,088 --> 00:58:35,392 "I'm making that patient feel better." 1093 00:58:36,698 --> 00:58:39,755 And with the addict at the center, the addict is 1094 00:58:39,927 --> 00:58:42,194 always gonna be doing his or her thing, manipulating, 1095 00:58:42,365 --> 00:58:45,010 obfuscating, lying, getting drugs. 1096 00:58:46,349 --> 00:58:49,887 In their brain, their survival depends on 1097 00:58:50,024 --> 00:58:51,982 the access to the drugs. 1098 00:58:52,119 --> 00:58:55,347 And if a physician doesn't understand that when he 1099 00:58:55,519 --> 00:58:56,550 or she is prescribing, 1100 00:58:58,473 --> 00:58:59,503 not good. 1101 00:59:04,243 --> 00:59:07,506 But investigators find a series of text messages between 1102 00:59:07,677 --> 00:59:09,188 Dr. Plasencia and Dr. Chavez. 1103 00:59:11,627 --> 00:59:15,439 On September 30th, 2023, they discussed how much 1104 00:59:15,611 --> 00:59:18,325 to charge for ketamine, stating, quote, 1105 00:59:19,492 --> 00:59:21,759 "I wonder how much this moron will pay." 1106 00:59:21,896 --> 00:59:23,854 [tense music builds] 1107 00:59:33,781 --> 00:59:37,697 {\an8}Plasencia texts Chavez, "If today goes well, 1108 00:59:37,867 --> 00:59:39,379 {\an8}we may have repeat business." 1109 00:59:41,851 --> 00:59:45,321 In a subsequent text, Plasencia said they would be 1110 00:59:45,492 --> 00:59:49,854 best served not having to look elsewhere and be his go-to. 1111 00:59:55,212 --> 00:59:56,689 [Mack] You don't see messages about, how is he doing? 1112 00:59:56,827 --> 00:59:58,062 Did it go OK? 1113 00:59:58,234 --> 01:00:01,154 {\an8}The absence of any level of concern or care after that 1114 01:00:01,326 --> 01:00:04,795 because they were behaving as a cruel drug traffickers, 1115 01:00:04,966 --> 01:00:06,339 not sworn medical doctors. 1116 01:00:15,304 --> 01:00:16,574 [Dr. Drew] Some of these text messages 1117 01:00:16,747 --> 01:00:18,258 around Matthew Perry are reprehensible. 1118 01:00:19,871 --> 01:00:20,971 [sighs] 1119 01:00:23,101 --> 01:00:24,955 And-- and I-- there's no excuse. 1120 01:00:25,126 --> 01:00:28,561 Matthew Perry paid these doctors about $55,000 in cash 1121 01:00:28,699 --> 01:00:30,725 in less than a month. 1122 01:00:30,896 --> 01:00:32,820 It was just about exploiting 1123 01:00:32,992 --> 01:00:34,949 him and sucking money out of him. 1124 01:00:37,422 --> 01:00:40,032 I expect that behavior from drug dealers, right? 1125 01:00:40,204 --> 01:00:44,531 {\an8}I don't expect it from doctors who took an oath 1126 01:00:44,669 --> 01:00:46,077 {\an8}to protect their patients. 1127 01:00:47,142 --> 01:00:48,550 [Dr. Drew] I don't understand 1128 01:00:49,751 --> 01:00:53,358 how my peers get there. I don't get it. 1129 01:00:54,595 --> 01:00:55,592 It's my own biases. 1130 01:00:55,727 --> 01:00:56,965 I don't wanna believe this is possible. 1131 01:00:57,136 --> 01:00:59,232 That is just what it looks like. 1132 01:01:00,571 --> 01:01:01,738 I wanna believe that they 1133 01:01:02,769 --> 01:01:04,829 poorly trained, made errors, 1134 01:01:05,928 --> 01:01:08,367 got sucked in, were manipulated. 1135 01:01:08,539 --> 01:01:10,703 But in addition to the horrible financial motivations, 1136 01:01:10,874 --> 01:01:13,314 there were egregious behaviors that I was not expecting 1137 01:01:13,485 --> 01:01:14,618 from a physician. 1138 01:01:15,580 --> 01:01:19,598 [Mack] The investigation covered a two-week period from 1139 01:01:19,769 --> 01:01:23,514 September 30th to October 12th, where we identified the doctors 1140 01:01:23,685 --> 01:01:26,433 as a primary source of the ketamine for Matthew Perry. 1141 01:01:28,871 --> 01:01:31,207 [Bill] At one point, Dr. Plasencia met them 1142 01:01:31,379 --> 01:01:34,572 at a parking lot in Long Beach and injected Matthew Perry in 1143 01:01:34,744 --> 01:01:35,980 the backseat of a car. 1144 01:01:38,419 --> 01:01:43,674 And then another time when Dr. P injected Matthew Perry, 1145 01:01:43,845 --> 01:01:46,834 there was an adverse reaction, a blood pressure spike. 1146 01:01:47,005 --> 01:01:49,376 Matthew Perry was unable to move all of a sudden. 1147 01:01:51,127 --> 01:01:53,806 At that point, obviously, 1148 01:01:53,977 --> 01:01:56,690 Dr. Plasencia should have known that this was very 1149 01:01:56,863 --> 01:01:59,061 dangerous administration of the drug outside a hospital. 1150 01:02:01,053 --> 01:02:05,484 But they continued to supply Matthew Perry with ketamine, 1151 01:02:05,655 --> 01:02:08,780 really through an intermediary, Kenneth Iwamasa, 1152 01:02:08,952 --> 01:02:12,146 who was Matthew Perry's live-in assistant. 1153 01:02:12,284 --> 01:02:16,336 And they actually, I hesitate to use the word "trained," 1154 01:02:16,508 --> 01:02:18,775 because that would kind of intimate that there was some 1155 01:02:18,946 --> 01:02:23,068 type of formal process of medical training that went on. 1156 01:02:23,240 --> 01:02:24,614 The doctor showed Kenneth how 1157 01:02:24,785 --> 01:02:27,430 to inject Matthew Perry himself with ketamine, 1158 01:02:29,525 --> 01:02:33,406 {\an8}because it was not feasible for the doctor to keep traveling 1159 01:02:33,578 --> 01:02:34,986 back and forth doing these injections. 1160 01:02:38,798 --> 01:02:44,705 It's mind-boggling that Matthew's physicians trained 1161 01:02:44,877 --> 01:02:48,140 a layperson to infuse Matthew with ketamine... 1162 01:02:51,677 --> 01:02:57,516 to give IV injections of a seriously dangerous chemical. 1163 01:02:57,688 --> 01:02:59,646 At the very beginning, they start charging really 1164 01:02:59,817 --> 01:03:00,881 exorbitant amounts of money. 1165 01:03:00,882 --> 01:03:03,321 Initially, it was $1,000 to 10-milliliter vial. 1166 01:03:05,313 --> 01:03:07,305 Now, all of a sudden, $3,000 1167 01:03:07,476 --> 01:03:08,575 for a 10 milliliter vial. 1168 01:03:09,777 --> 01:03:11,049 And what happens? 1169 01:03:11,185 --> 01:03:15,582 Iwamasa and Matthew Perry start reaching out to contacts 1170 01:03:15,753 --> 01:03:16,956 they have in the black market. 1171 01:03:19,394 --> 01:03:22,244 {\an8}This tangled web of conspirators that were involved 1172 01:03:22,416 --> 01:03:25,713 {\an8}in Matthew Perry's death stretches far wider than just 1173 01:03:25,885 --> 01:03:28,289 Dr. Plasencia and Dr. Chavez. 1174 01:03:28,461 --> 01:03:30,384 [dark music plays and ends] 1175 01:03:39,492 --> 01:03:41,484 {\an8}[interviewer speaking] 1176 01:03:43,194 --> 01:03:44,191 {\an8}[Taylor] All right. 1177 01:03:47,728 --> 01:03:50,030 {\an8}My name is Taylor Shannon. 1178 01:03:50,167 --> 01:03:52,709 {\an8}I got into opiates in like my late teens. 1179 01:03:54,701 --> 01:03:58,685 William Cooney is from Birmingham, Alabama. 1180 01:03:58,856 --> 01:04:02,051 Most of his friends called him Bammer throughout the years 1181 01:04:02,188 --> 01:04:03,733 just growing up. 1182 01:04:03,906 --> 01:04:07,615 I knew him but not well until we went to 1183 01:04:07,786 --> 01:04:09,228 the same rehab facility. 1184 01:04:10,362 --> 01:04:12,938 That's when we got really close. 1185 01:04:13,074 --> 01:04:15,410 And ever since then, I mean, I've talked to him every day 1186 01:04:15,583 --> 01:04:16,785 for like 12 years, probably. 1187 01:04:18,159 --> 01:04:20,184 He was very athletic. 1188 01:04:20,357 --> 01:04:24,855 He was a left-handed pitcher for baseball. 1189 01:04:24,993 --> 01:04:26,951 And he could throw the ball really hard. 1190 01:04:28,050 --> 01:04:31,931 I have not used any opiates or hard drugs for, 1191 01:04:33,304 --> 01:04:34,850 it'll be 16 years in January. 1192 01:04:37,082 --> 01:04:38,354 {\an8}- [interviewer speaking] - Thanks. 1193 01:04:40,208 --> 01:04:44,055 William stayed clean, but he had a relapse, 1194 01:04:45,359 --> 01:04:46,631 and it was ketamine. 1195 01:04:48,141 --> 01:04:50,855 And he never stopped, and I stopped. 1196 01:04:51,026 --> 01:04:52,367 And I think just from then, 1197 01:04:52,538 --> 01:04:54,599 it was just constant relapse for him. 1198 01:04:56,385 --> 01:05:00,369 It had been years since I had used opiates at that time when 1199 01:05:00,541 --> 01:05:04,456 William was getting really deep into his addiction to where, 1200 01:05:04,628 --> 01:05:06,962 like, I could be there to help him. 1201 01:05:07,134 --> 01:05:09,195 I mean, I've pulled him out of drug houses. 1202 01:05:09,367 --> 01:05:13,351 I've driven around with him in a car while he's using. 1203 01:05:13,522 --> 01:05:17,610 We're pushing really hard to get him into a rehab facility. 1204 01:05:18,709 --> 01:05:21,215 He said he would only go if he went to The Red Door. 1205 01:05:23,449 --> 01:05:24,720 [Dr. Drew] I have heard of this facility-- 1206 01:05:24,856 --> 01:05:26,677 {\an8}an upscale drug treatment center in Bel Air. 1207 01:05:26,814 --> 01:05:28,119 {\an8}Welcome to Dr. Drew Podcast, everyone. 1208 01:05:28,292 --> 01:05:30,009 Thank you, thank you. We appreciate your support. 1209 01:05:30,180 --> 01:05:33,168 One time, I interviewed the co-founder on my podcast. 1210 01:05:33,340 --> 01:05:35,332 Today, we're talking to Bernadine Fried. 1211 01:05:35,503 --> 01:05:37,599 The treatment facility is Red Door Life Recovery. 1212 01:05:39,110 --> 01:05:40,484 [Simon] It opened in 2018, 1213 01:05:40,656 --> 01:05:43,403 and Bel Air is a part of Hollywood. 1214 01:05:43,575 --> 01:05:50,238 It's all glitz and glamour and fancy bourgeoisie activity. 1215 01:05:50,410 --> 01:05:54,291 And it became a sought-after destination 1216 01:05:54,463 --> 01:05:56,249 for members of Hollywood. 1217 01:05:57,278 --> 01:05:59,030 [Bill] No one could have known at the time that one of 1218 01:05:59,201 --> 01:06:01,708 the employees at Red Door would eventually be linked 1219 01:06:01,881 --> 01:06:03,358 to Matthew Perry's death. 1220 01:06:04,560 --> 01:06:07,444 {\an8}Erik Fleming was a TV and film producer 1221 01:06:07,582 --> 01:06:09,230 {\an8}and director in Hollywood. 1222 01:06:09,403 --> 01:06:12,116 He was the director of the film "My Brother the Pig," 1223 01:06:12,287 --> 01:06:15,447 starring Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes. 1224 01:06:15,584 --> 01:06:18,572 He produced the first season of "The Surreal Life." 1225 01:06:18,745 --> 01:06:22,865 His career ended up fizzling out in the 2010s. 1226 01:06:23,037 --> 01:06:27,296 In 2021, Erik Fleming becomes the program director at a place 1227 01:06:27,468 --> 01:06:28,396 called The Red Door. 1228 01:06:31,899 --> 01:06:34,337 Program director is sort of the administrator 1229 01:06:34,475 --> 01:06:35,710 of the program. 1230 01:06:35,883 --> 01:06:37,428 Erik Fleming is not a physician, 1231 01:06:37,565 --> 01:06:38,870 he's not a clinician. 1232 01:06:40,862 --> 01:06:44,435 [Taylor] When William was at The Red Door, he would call me. 1233 01:06:46,907 --> 01:06:49,998 But William was obviously high. 1234 01:06:51,888 --> 01:06:53,707 I could barely understand him, 1235 01:06:53,880 --> 01:06:56,731 which he usually isn't like that. 1236 01:06:56,901 --> 01:06:59,134 Yeah, I think he was there two or three days. 1237 01:06:59,306 --> 01:07:03,427 And one night, I got the call that he passed away. 1238 01:07:09,197 --> 01:07:10,949 Um... 1239 01:07:11,120 --> 01:07:12,357 Yeah. 1240 01:07:12,529 --> 01:07:13,971 {\an8}[interviewer whispers] 1241 01:07:16,410 --> 01:07:19,638 William Cooney was found unresponsive on the floor 1242 01:07:19,810 --> 01:07:21,974 of his bathroom at The Red Door. 1243 01:07:22,145 --> 01:07:24,446 He was found by one of his fellow residents, 1244 01:07:24,619 --> 01:07:26,267 and they tried to resuscitate him, 1245 01:07:26,438 --> 01:07:27,950 but they were unsuccessful. 1246 01:07:28,946 --> 01:07:31,349 According to the coroner, he overdosed on 1247 01:07:31,522 --> 01:07:32,552 fentanyl and meth. 1248 01:07:49,759 --> 01:07:53,949 I knew he already was getting drugs outside of the facility. 1249 01:07:55,770 --> 01:07:57,658 [Shalini] It was actually when Matthew Perry died. 1250 01:07:57,830 --> 01:08:01,229 My editors wanted us to look into this death. 1251 01:08:01,402 --> 01:08:03,875 As I started learning more about it, Perry found Fleming 1252 01:08:04,047 --> 01:08:06,759 through this web of connections, who's kind of 1253 01:08:06,931 --> 01:08:08,615 {\an8}connected to various celebrities. 1254 01:08:08,786 --> 01:08:11,706 {\an8}He's kind of described to us as a kind of celebrity hanger-on. 1255 01:08:13,113 --> 01:08:14,591 [Bill] After the doctors struggle 1256 01:08:14,762 --> 01:08:16,033 with their procurement of the ketamine, 1257 01:08:17,991 --> 01:08:20,601 {\an8}Kenneth Iwamasa contacts Erik Fleming. 1258 01:08:22,936 --> 01:08:25,375 At this point, Erik was no longer working at Red Door. 1259 01:08:26,405 --> 01:08:30,080 [Shalini] Kenneth, he texts Erik, "Here, Batman's butler. 1260 01:08:31,866 --> 01:08:33,102 "He said I can text you directly. 1261 01:08:34,408 --> 01:08:36,125 "How much do you want per bottle? 1262 01:08:36,296 --> 01:08:37,636 What's the nice tip you want?" 1263 01:08:39,490 --> 01:08:43,578 {\an8}Erik Fleming provided 50 vials of ketamine days before 1264 01:08:43,749 --> 01:08:45,639 {\an8}Perry died. 1265 01:08:45,810 --> 01:08:48,111 {\an8}And our next question is, where did you get them from? 1266 01:08:48,283 --> 01:08:50,207 {\an8}[suspenseful music playing] 1267 01:09:01,906 --> 01:09:03,658 {\an8}Hollywood dubbed her the Ketamine Queen. 1268 01:09:07,161 --> 01:09:10,184 [Mack] That is a moniker that was told to us. 1269 01:09:10,355 --> 01:09:12,587 {\an8}She was active in the LA club scene. 1270 01:09:14,237 --> 01:09:16,777 [Bill] She didn't really fit the profile of who the public 1271 01:09:16,950 --> 01:09:18,563 probably thinks a drug dealer is. 1272 01:09:23,887 --> 01:09:27,459 {\an8}I met Jasveen around 2010. 1273 01:09:27,631 --> 01:09:32,097 It was during one event, and it's electronic music. 1274 01:09:33,710 --> 01:09:36,355 She was maybe 25, 26 when I met her. 1275 01:09:36,491 --> 01:09:40,510 {\an8}You can kind of tell she came from some money, but she still 1276 01:09:40,681 --> 01:09:42,159 {\an8}had that hustle in her. 1277 01:09:42,331 --> 01:09:45,662 {\an8}[Nicole] She comes from Indian heritage, grew up in London 1278 01:09:45,834 --> 01:09:47,414 {\an8}and Los Angeles. 1279 01:09:47,585 --> 01:09:50,127 {\an8}I knew she had gotten a master's degree. 1280 01:09:50,300 --> 01:09:52,154 {\an8}I knew she had a business background. 1281 01:09:52,292 --> 01:09:54,284 She worked, I believe, at Merrill Lynch. 1282 01:09:54,419 --> 01:09:58,953 And I was under the assumption that she was, and she told me 1283 01:09:59,126 --> 01:10:01,461 she was in the event business. 1284 01:10:01,633 --> 01:10:05,239 She was definitely branding herself as being an it girl, 1285 01:10:05,376 --> 01:10:08,228 a popular person, and she was. 1286 01:10:08,398 --> 01:10:13,139 Mind you, I was a bit surprised at the way things turned out. 1287 01:10:19,732 --> 01:10:22,342 [Mack] Based off information provided from Erik Fleming, 1288 01:10:22,514 --> 01:10:26,704 who is one of the main sources who identified 1289 01:10:26,876 --> 01:10:29,486 the Ketamine Queen as a source of his drugs, 1290 01:10:30,517 --> 01:10:33,195 a search warrant was executed by local authorities, 1291 01:10:33,368 --> 01:10:35,222 supported by the federal authorities 1292 01:10:35,394 --> 01:10:38,004 at Jasveen Sangha's house. 1293 01:10:39,481 --> 01:10:40,477 Ketamine was found. 1294 01:10:42,434 --> 01:10:44,288 Cocaine was found. 1295 01:10:44,461 --> 01:10:46,280 Methamphetamine was found in significant 1296 01:10:46,453 --> 01:10:47,999 trafficking quantities. 1297 01:10:48,136 --> 01:10:50,608 Thousands of pills were found. 1298 01:10:50,781 --> 01:10:52,394 In addition, guns, firearms. 1299 01:10:53,872 --> 01:10:56,825 [Shalini] And they later found that the ketamine seized 1300 01:10:56,997 --> 01:10:59,676 from her apartment matched the vials sold to both 1301 01:10:59,848 --> 01:11:03,626 Matthew Perry and another young man who had died of an overdose, 1302 01:11:05,584 --> 01:11:06,579 Cody McLaury. 1303 01:11:10,460 --> 01:11:14,204 [Kate] Cody grew up in Alaska. It was a small town. 1304 01:11:14,375 --> 01:11:16,917 {\an8}He wanted to go and, like, explore and travel 1305 01:11:17,054 --> 01:11:19,597 {\an8}and see things. So he moved to Los Angeles. 1306 01:11:22,035 --> 01:11:23,168 {\an8}We both had a sweet tooth. 1307 01:11:24,541 --> 01:11:27,461 Like, we would go run around the neighborhood that we 1308 01:11:27,633 --> 01:11:30,209 lived at, 'cause I was doing just, like, small runs, 1309 01:11:30,380 --> 01:11:31,755 like, 5K, 10K. 1310 01:11:31,892 --> 01:11:35,017 But we always ended up eating Oreos afterwards. 1311 01:11:35,189 --> 01:11:38,074 And one year for my birthday, he got me a gallon of milk 1312 01:11:38,246 --> 01:11:40,752 and probably, like, five or six packages of Oreos, and I was 1313 01:11:40,890 --> 01:11:43,363 like, "This was my favorite present, I think, ever." 1314 01:11:45,149 --> 01:11:46,695 Cody always knew that he was gay. 1315 01:11:46,832 --> 01:11:50,884 At the time that he came out, it wasn't on his terms. 1316 01:11:51,056 --> 01:11:52,704 That was very difficult for him. 1317 01:11:54,490 --> 01:11:56,620 He had struggles with mental health or depression. 1318 01:11:57,856 --> 01:11:59,506 Cody did like to do ketamine. 1319 01:11:59,677 --> 01:12:02,940 I think the thing that drew him most to it was, 1320 01:12:04,107 --> 01:12:07,474 you know, the therapeutic side of what he would get from it. 1321 01:12:07,645 --> 01:12:10,050 It helped him, you know, cope with things that he might 1322 01:12:10,221 --> 01:12:11,458 have been struggling with at the time. 1323 01:12:13,450 --> 01:12:18,841 At the age of 33 in 2019, he died of a ketamine overdose. 1324 01:12:21,314 --> 01:12:23,375 [Kate] I was sitting in an office by myself, 1325 01:12:23,547 --> 01:12:25,504 and a friend had called me, 1326 01:12:25,677 --> 01:12:29,007 and he just said that Cody was dead. 1327 01:12:29,180 --> 01:12:31,687 And it's like immediately my heart just sunk. 1328 01:12:34,160 --> 01:12:35,465 It was the last thing you expect to hear. 1329 01:12:41,509 --> 01:12:43,192 {\an8}[interviewer speaking] 1330 01:12:43,364 --> 01:12:44,325 {\an8}I think shock. 1331 01:12:46,317 --> 01:12:48,996 One of LA's public officials had released 1332 01:12:49,168 --> 01:12:54,286 a statement kind of dismissing his death as just another death 1333 01:12:54,457 --> 01:12:56,999 in the gay community from somebody, like a drug addict. 1334 01:13:02,838 --> 01:13:06,272 After Cody died, Cody's sister had gotten his phone back 1335 01:13:06,444 --> 01:13:07,509 from the police. 1336 01:13:07,646 --> 01:13:09,226 She had been going through some text messages. 1337 01:13:11,012 --> 01:13:12,729 Ended up finding conversations 1338 01:13:12,900 --> 01:13:15,649 and then a Venmo transaction to Jasveen, 1339 01:13:18,122 --> 01:13:20,559 talking about him getting ketamine from her 1340 01:13:20,731 --> 01:13:22,071 and purchasing it that day. 1341 01:13:23,857 --> 01:13:27,119 And she sent it to the police department doing 1342 01:13:27,292 --> 01:13:28,905 the investigation in LA 1343 01:13:29,078 --> 01:13:31,654 And then five months later, after they did nothing, 1344 01:13:31,825 --> 01:13:35,019 that's when she messaged Jasveen and told her that 1345 01:13:35,191 --> 01:13:36,529 the cause of death was ketamine. 1346 01:13:42,026 --> 01:13:45,185 There was no communication back. 1347 01:13:45,357 --> 01:13:49,513 [Mack] Our investigation revealed that in 2019, Jasveen Sangha 1348 01:13:49,684 --> 01:13:52,158 took upon it herself to try to identify whether she could be 1349 01:13:52,329 --> 01:13:55,798 held responsible and looking into whether ketamine could be 1350 01:13:55,970 --> 01:13:58,889 listed as a cause of death on an autopsy report. 1351 01:13:59,060 --> 01:14:01,052 [Bill] Sangha did a Google search, and the search was, 1352 01:14:01,225 --> 01:14:03,286 "can ketamine be listed as a cause of death?" 1353 01:14:03,457 --> 01:14:06,068 She already knew, and that's a big issue. 1354 01:14:06,238 --> 01:14:09,433 {\an8}She continued to traffic drugs because it's a cycle of just 1355 01:14:09,604 --> 01:14:11,563 {\an8}greed and harm that just keeps going. 1356 01:14:15,822 --> 01:14:17,710 [faint chatter] 1357 01:14:17,882 --> 01:14:19,771 [sirens wailing] 1358 01:14:21,557 --> 01:14:24,613 And on the day that news broke that Matthew Perry died, 1359 01:14:24,785 --> 01:14:27,052 {\an8}Jasveen Sanga asked Erik Fleming 1360 01:14:27,190 --> 01:14:28,151 {\an8}to delete their messages. 1361 01:14:34,435 --> 01:14:35,776 They had it over Signal, right? 1362 01:14:35,948 --> 01:14:38,078 An encrypted messaging app that they had on their phones. 1363 01:14:39,588 --> 01:14:41,374 But, you know, what's interesting is people 1364 01:14:41,545 --> 01:14:44,122 have a misunderstanding about how it works, right? 1365 01:14:44,258 --> 01:14:46,080 Yes, you can delete messages. 1366 01:14:46,216 --> 01:14:48,483 Sometimes messages are stored on the cloud and they can be 1367 01:14:48,655 --> 01:14:50,853 accessed from a search warrant served on 1368 01:14:51,025 --> 01:14:52,467 the Apple Cloud or the iCloud. 1369 01:14:53,532 --> 01:14:58,306 {\an8}[Mack] So we learned that on October 12th, a photo was transmitted 1370 01:14:59,440 --> 01:15:03,046 relating to the product Jasveen Sangha has 1371 01:15:03,217 --> 01:15:04,934 available and the prices. 1372 01:15:18,363 --> 01:15:21,077 Sangha and Fleming had sold 25 vials of ketamine 1373 01:15:21,248 --> 01:15:23,034 {\an8}to Matthew Perry for $6,000. 1374 01:15:23,206 --> 01:15:25,817 {\an8}[Mack] And another 25 more just 10 days later. 1375 01:15:25,955 --> 01:15:29,423 {\an8}So 50 vials in almost a two-and-a-half week period 1376 01:15:29,595 --> 01:15:31,208 is a significant amount of ketamine. 1377 01:15:38,799 --> 01:15:41,410 How do we know that that was the ketamine, right, 1378 01:15:41,581 --> 01:15:43,642 that Sangha supplied that killed Matthew Perry? 1379 01:15:43,814 --> 01:15:46,973 Really, it's just based on what prosecutors might call 1380 01:15:47,144 --> 01:15:48,725 temporal proximity. 1381 01:15:48,862 --> 01:15:51,954 What dose of ketamine was purchased closest to the time 1382 01:15:52,125 --> 01:15:53,189 of his death? 1383 01:15:53,362 --> 01:15:55,525 And is there any specific evidence that suggests 1384 01:15:55,697 --> 01:15:57,827 that that's not the dose that killed him? 1385 01:15:57,998 --> 01:16:00,196 And in this case, it was pretty apparent that it was 1386 01:16:00,367 --> 01:16:02,703 the ketamine from Sangha that actually killed him. 1387 01:16:16,509 --> 01:16:17,643 It was shocking. 1388 01:16:17,781 --> 01:16:21,456 I-- I could not understand what was going on. 1389 01:16:21,628 --> 01:16:25,405 The person that I met that I knew being associated with 1390 01:16:26,951 --> 01:16:28,874 the death of Matthew Perry. 1391 01:16:29,045 --> 01:16:30,213 She never came off that way. 1392 01:16:30,385 --> 01:16:32,239 You know, she wasn't like doing business around me. 1393 01:16:32,412 --> 01:16:34,300 We were just chilling, hanging out as friends. 1394 01:16:34,472 --> 01:16:35,812 She seemed like she was making moves. 1395 01:16:35,984 --> 01:16:37,185 She was smart. 1396 01:16:37,186 --> 01:16:40,207 You know, she wasn't just rich girl partying it up. 1397 01:16:40,380 --> 01:16:43,540 I think Jasveen most certainly was living, 1398 01:16:43,677 --> 01:16:45,841 you know, two lives. 1399 01:16:46,013 --> 01:16:48,691 There is no about that, and she played-- 1400 01:16:48,863 --> 01:16:50,409 she played it well. 1401 01:16:52,847 --> 01:16:54,667 {\an8}[Mack] For those of you who are in courtroom, 1402 01:16:54,839 --> 01:16:57,999 {\an8}I thought the government was 1403 01:16:58,170 --> 01:17:01,983 {\an8}turning the responsibility in this case on its head. 1404 01:17:02,154 --> 01:17:05,761 {\an8}Why is she in custody and the people, 1405 01:17:05,933 --> 01:17:08,611 whether it's medical professionals or the people 1406 01:17:08,783 --> 01:17:11,497 who are administering the drug, are out? 1407 01:17:13,935 --> 01:17:17,508 So the investigation uncovered essentially two threads that 1408 01:17:17,679 --> 01:17:20,563 {\an8}were the main sources for Matthew Perry to get ketamine. 1409 01:17:20,735 --> 01:17:23,689 On both threads, the sort of unifier was Mr. Iwamasa. 1410 01:17:33,684 --> 01:17:37,015 Kenneth had Erik Fleming, who was a middle person between 1411 01:17:37,187 --> 01:17:39,110 himself and the Ketamine Queen. 1412 01:17:51,337 --> 01:17:55,630 And then Mr. Iwamasa also utilized as a middle person, 1413 01:17:55,802 --> 01:17:57,450 Dr. Plasencia, who was getting 1414 01:17:57,622 --> 01:18:00,576 his drugs from Dr. Chavez in San Diego. 1415 01:18:00,747 --> 01:18:01,985 [reporter]...responsible for Matthew Perry's death. 1416 01:18:02,155 --> 01:18:03,118 [man] Come here, Mark. Come here. 1417 01:18:03,289 --> 01:18:05,144 Go ahead. This way. 1418 01:18:05,316 --> 01:18:06,929 Let's go around. 1419 01:18:07,102 --> 01:18:10,055 - OK. - Excuse me, guys, we gotta get to court. 1420 01:18:10,227 --> 01:18:12,459 I'm sure doctors were saying things like, 1421 01:18:12,630 --> 01:18:14,897 "Hey, we didn't actually provide the ketamine 1422 01:18:15,070 --> 01:18:16,065 "that killed Matthew Perry. 1423 01:18:16,237 --> 01:18:18,264 That came from the Ketamine Queen." 1424 01:18:18,400 --> 01:18:19,775 [overlapping chatter] 1425 01:18:19,947 --> 01:18:21,148 ?¿Nos puede decir si se siente arrepentido? - [man] Excuse us. 1426 01:18:21,286 --> 01:18:23,175 [reporter] What's your biggest regret here, Dr. Chavez? 1427 01:18:26,747 --> 01:18:29,460 But why wasn't the ketamine that they sold the ketamine 1428 01:18:29,632 --> 01:18:30,799 that killed Matthew Perry? 1429 01:18:30,800 --> 01:18:33,135 It was because they were basically extorting the guy. 1430 01:18:35,333 --> 01:18:37,910 They had become so predatory 1431 01:18:38,080 --> 01:18:39,867 and were trying to exploit him so much 1432 01:18:41,000 --> 01:18:42,717 that he decided to find another source. 1433 01:18:42,889 --> 01:18:45,637 So their conduct, in my mind, was so egregious that even 1434 01:18:45,809 --> 01:18:47,147 he didn't wanna deal with him anymore. 1435 01:18:47,148 --> 01:18:48,968 {\an8}[reporter] Is there anything you'd like to say [indistinct]. 1436 01:18:49,140 --> 01:18:50,067 {\an8}[faint chatter] 1437 01:19:01,985 --> 01:19:03,633 [reporter] You gonna be able to keep your license, Mr. Chavez, 1438 01:19:03,806 --> 01:19:04,698 after all this? 1439 01:19:04,870 --> 01:19:06,004 [man] You don't have to [indistinct] 1440 01:19:17,062 --> 01:19:19,742 My client is accepting responsibility, 1441 01:19:19,913 --> 01:19:21,184 and he's incredibly remorseful. 1442 01:19:30,594 --> 01:19:33,617 {\an8}It's really tragic that someone like Matthew Perry was 1443 01:19:33,789 --> 01:19:37,120 {\an8}surrounded by the kind of people who could have helped 1444 01:19:37,291 --> 01:19:38,459 him live a long life, 1445 01:19:39,456 --> 01:19:40,623 but instead they betrayed him. 1446 01:19:45,672 --> 01:19:48,385 [Dr. Drew] People are looking at this young guy dying 1447 01:19:48,557 --> 01:19:50,789 {\an8}of addiction, and a physician 1448 01:19:50,927 --> 01:19:52,919 {\an8}added to his demise. 1449 01:19:53,090 --> 01:19:55,563 {\an8}I think doctors traditionally get off easy. 1450 01:20:00,337 --> 01:20:03,738 And I think that oftentimes, they're given second chances 1451 01:20:03,875 --> 01:20:06,210 that regular folk like you and I aren't given. 1452 01:20:08,683 --> 01:20:10,640 The reality is, you know, the Ketamine Queen 1453 01:20:10,813 --> 01:20:12,392 didn't take an oath to do no harm. 1454 01:20:12,564 --> 01:20:15,656 These doctors did take that oath, and they were there 1455 01:20:15,793 --> 01:20:16,892 earlier than the Ketamine Queen. 1456 01:20:17,063 --> 01:20:18,368 They saw what was going on. 1457 01:20:18,540 --> 01:20:19,777 [reporter] How come you're the only one on the show 1458 01:20:19,914 --> 01:20:22,455 that signs autographs? - I don't know, man. 1459 01:20:22,627 --> 01:20:24,551 [reporter] You gotta talk to those people. 1460 01:20:24,722 --> 01:20:27,161 [Bill] Dr. Plasencia was at Matthew Perry's house 1461 01:20:27,333 --> 01:20:29,840 and knew the depth of addiction that he was in. 1462 01:20:30,011 --> 01:20:31,901 - [reporter] How are you, man? - Hi, guys. 1463 01:20:32,071 --> 01:20:34,854 [Bill] And really, if they had had Matthew Perry's best interests 1464 01:20:35,026 --> 01:20:36,537 at heart, the death could have been avoided. 1465 01:20:42,135 --> 01:20:43,372 And they didn't do that. 1466 01:20:43,544 --> 01:20:46,359 So to some extent, they got off relatively light for what 1467 01:20:46,532 --> 01:20:47,700 they did in this case. 1468 01:20:49,554 --> 01:20:51,477 Hollywood creates these doctors, and I think Hollywood 1469 01:20:51,650 --> 01:20:52,645 attracts these doctors. 1470 01:20:54,121 --> 01:20:55,634 The unfortunate thing is there's a dark side 1471 01:20:55,770 --> 01:20:56,732 to Hollywood, and there's gonna 1472 01:20:56,903 --> 01:20:58,311 be people there looking to exploit. 1473 01:21:02,124 --> 01:21:04,494 And sometimes they're wearing white coats and they have an MD 1474 01:21:04,631 --> 01:21:05,902 after their name. 1475 01:21:05,903 --> 01:21:08,306 [interviewer] Has your life changed a lot since you made 1476 01:21:08,478 --> 01:21:10,882 a lot of successful movies lately? 1477 01:21:11,054 --> 01:21:13,046 No, um I mean, the last movie I made was a year ago. 1478 01:21:13,218 --> 01:21:14,969 [Kim] The addiction to drugs is a massive problem. 1479 01:21:15,141 --> 01:21:17,167 {\an8}You know, the doctors have a responsibility. 1480 01:21:18,506 --> 01:21:19,503 {\an8}So do the individuals. 1481 01:21:23,006 --> 01:21:25,993 [Chazz] My mission is called Justice4cuz. 1482 01:21:27,506 --> 01:21:31,180 The Justice4cuz means we believe that Prince left 1483 01:21:31,352 --> 01:21:33,207 this earth unjustly. 1484 01:21:33,378 --> 01:21:35,027 {\an8}And I feel like he deserved to have 1485 01:21:36,263 --> 01:21:37,946 {\an8}someone fighting on his behalf. 1486 01:21:39,836 --> 01:21:41,346 There's going to be somebody 1487 01:21:41,484 --> 01:21:43,922 that's gonna make a decision in their life. 1488 01:21:44,094 --> 01:21:46,670 Either I'm going to take this pill and take a chance to take 1489 01:21:46,841 --> 01:21:49,281 it, or Imma remember all the people 1490 01:21:49,418 --> 01:21:50,550 that passed from this. 1491 01:21:53,023 --> 01:21:54,740 No, she was not as fat. 1492 01:21:57,214 --> 01:21:59,378 {\an8}[interviewer speaking] 1493 01:21:59,515 --> 01:22:00,545 For my profession? 1494 01:22:03,809 --> 01:22:06,212 Uh, we-- we-- 1495 01:22:06,350 --> 01:22:07,963 I'm very discouraged these days. 1496 01:22:08,135 --> 01:22:10,505 You're getting me in a bad mood. 1497 01:22:10,677 --> 01:22:14,764 But, um, because the job of physician, 1498 01:22:16,035 --> 01:22:18,886 at least in my era, was 1499 01:22:19,057 --> 01:22:20,980 one of the most important jobs you could ever do. 1500 01:22:21,153 --> 01:22:24,999 {\an8}And do no harm is our number one priority. 1501 01:22:29,739 --> 01:22:32,967 My hope is, here's my hope, that this profession is 1502 01:22:33,139 --> 01:22:35,508 restored to the importance that it-- 1503 01:22:36,642 --> 01:22:38,875 it needs 1504 01:22:39,046 --> 01:22:41,519 and that the people that do the work understand how 1505 01:22:41,691 --> 01:22:43,580 important the job is and behave accordingly.