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A California doctor charged in the 2023 overdose death of Friends star Matthew Perry pleaded guilty on Wednesday to four counts of illegal distribution of the prescription anaesthetic ketamine.

Perry died from the “acute effects” of the powerful sedative ketamine that, combined with other factors, caused the actor to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub, according to an autopsy released in December.

Dr Salvador Plasencia, one of five people charged in the death of Perry at age 54, entered the plea in US District Court in Los Angeles. He faces up to 40 years in prison.

Plasencia, 43, will remain free on bond until his sentencing on December 3. He intends to surrender his medical license within 45 days, his attorney said.

In court, the doctor looked down and patted his face with tissues while answering “yes, your honour” to a series of questions about his actions in the weeks before Perry’s death in October 2023.

Plasencia admitted to supplying Perry with ketamine, a short-acting anaesthetic with hallucinogenic properties.

The drug is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and anxiety, but is also abused by recreational users. Plasencia acknowledged that he injected Perry with ketamine at the actor’s home and in the back seat of a parked car and that doing so was not for legitimate medical purposes.

Plasencia operated an urgent care clinic and obtained the ketamine from another doctor, Mark Chavez of San Diego. According to court filings, Plasencia texted Chavez about Perry, writing, “I wonder how much this moron will pay.”

Attorneys for Plasencia said the doctor was “profoundly remorseful” for the decisions he made regarding Perry and was “fully accepting responsibility.”

“He hopes his case serves as a warning to other medical professionals and leads to stricter oversight and clear protocols for the rapidly growing at-home ketamine industry to prevent future tragedies like this one,” his attorneys said in a written statement.

Chavez and two other co-defendants have already pleaded guilty in the case. None has yet been sentenced.

A fifth defendant, Jasveen Sangha, whom authorities said was a drug dealer known to customers as the “ketamine queen,” has been charged with supplying the dose that killed Perry. She has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial in August.

Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s television sitcom Friends.