A US federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a woman to 15 years in prison after she admitted selling Matthew Perry the ketamine that killed him in 2023, the stiffest punishment so far among five defendants in the high-profile overdose case of the popular star of the global hit TV series Friends.

US District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett imposed the sentence on Jasveen Sangha, 42, a North Hollywood resident described by prosecutors as a high-end dealer known to customers as the “Ketamine Queen.”

Ketamine is a powerful anaesthetic approved by US health regulators for use during surgery. It can be given as an intramuscular injection or by IV.

The drug is a chemical cousin of the recreational drug PCP. Ketamine itself has been used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It can cause hallucinations and can impact breathing and the heart.

Sangha pleaded guilty last year to five federal charges, including distributing ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury, three counts of ketamine distribution and maintaining a drug-involved premises. 

Perry was found dead at the age of 54 on October 28, 2023, at his Los Angeles home, where he was discovered in a backyard hot tub. The medical examiner said ketamine was the primary cause of death and ruled the death an accident, citing the drug’s “acute effects” and noting drowning as a contributing factor.

Prosecutors said Sangha sold Perry 25 vials of ketamine for about $6,000 in cash days before his death and took steps after Perry’s death to distance herself from the sale, including directing that messages be deleted.

Prosecutors also portrayed Sangha as running a drug-selling operation out of her North Hollywood residence, saying agents seized ketamine and other drugs during the investigation.

Sangha also admitted selling ketamine in 2019 to a man who later died of an overdose, a factor prosecutors cited as showing she knowingly continued dealing despite being aware of the risks.

Perry’s portrayal of Chandler Bing made him one of the biggest US TV series stars of the 1990s and early 2000s, and his death renewed scrutiny of ketamine’s growing use outside operating rooms as both a treatment and an illicit drug.

• A Tell Media / Xinhua report