Hollywood’s Quiet New Drug Habit

MODERATION IS THE KEY? –

Aug. 21, 2024 – The animal tranquilizer and club-drug “Special K” has made a comeback as a trendy antidepressant for creative elites. Unlike many celebrities’ high-profile struggles with opiates, cocaine and alcohol, even the most desperate ketamine-dependency cases – and the “Friends” star’s was certainly one – have been consigned to the shadows. Overdose deaths from ketamine alone are extremely rare, experts say, and no national fatality statistics exist. And yet Perry’s fast ride to deep dependency — an indictment said he shot up six to eight times on the day of his death – was a shock to many.

“That’s a lot of ketamine,” Mike Diamond, an addiction recovery expert who appears on A&E’s “Intervention,” told TheWrap. “I don’t know of anyone that’s died of ketamine – personally. But I wouldn’t want to be lying in a hot tub if I was using drugs.”

“He really pushed it to the extreme in a way that most ketamine users don’t,” Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor, said. “I would say there’s a lot of ketamine in Hollywood … and it’s used and abused much, much more than it’s properly used in a doctor’s office.”