On Oct. 28, 2023, beloved actor Matthew Perry was found dead in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home. Cause of death was ruled “acute effects of ketamine” and subsequent drowning. It was a tragic end, made more poignant by the fact that Perry had survived addictions to alcohol and opioids. He had written a book about it, and he was inspiring others to get help.
Last week, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that five people had been charged in connection with Perry’s death. Once again, the state demonstrated how much of a monster it is and how deeply evil its War on Drugs is.
According to a DOJ press release entitled “Five Defendants, Including Two Doctors, Charged in Connection with Actor Matthew Perry’s Fatal Drug Overdose Last Year,”:
“‘Today we announce charges brought against the five individuals who, together, are responsible for the death of Matthew Perry,’ said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. ‘We allege each of the defendants played a key role in his death by falsely prescribing, selling, or injecting the ketamine that caused Matthew Perry’s tragic death. Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials. Every day, the DEA works tirelessly with our federal, state, and local partners to protect the public and to hold accountable those that distribute deadly and dangerous drugs – whether they are local drug traffickers or doctors who violate their sworn oath to care for patients.’”
The press release also said:
“‘These defendants cared more about profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his well-being,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. ‘Drug dealers selling dangerous substances are gambling with other people’s lives over greed. This case, along with our many other prosecutions of drug-dealers who cause death, send a clear message that we will hold drug-dealers accountable for the deaths they cause.’”
If the press release is truthful (and we should always be suspicious of government press releases), the five people who preyed on Perry’s history of addiction and depression (which the ketamine was supposed to help) are absolute monsters. They are as malevolent and selfish as the government wants to portray them. But the real monster in this story is the government itself.
Look, many (maybe even all) of the government officials who investigated Perry’s overdose death and uncovered the diabolical conspirators profiting off of his suffering are no doubt people you and I would view as good. You know, they have a terrible job, but they’re good folk. One or two of them might be psychopaths, sure, but probably most of them are decent cats. But the state, a corporate agent that is a vast network of corporate agents, might as well be Satan himself.
The state has shaped the structure of our society for decades. And not for the better. Drug prohibition is a perfect example. The history of drug prohibition is one disaster after another. Alcohol prohibition during the 1920s and 1930s is a famous example, but all government drug prohibition has been catastrophic.
One result has been the emergence of increasingly dangerous street drugs, the state-empowerment of pharmaceutical companies and a culture in which it is cool and rebellious to take drugs with no quality control.
Ketamine was created by the pharmaceutical industry in the 1960s and get this, one of its early uses was as a battlefield anesthetic during the Vietnam War. Imagine how many yachts were purchased off that sweet, little military-industrial complex gig.
So, here’s Perry, being preyed on (allegedly) by a state-sanctioned pharmaceutical industry and state-licensed doctors when a free market in medicine would certainly have generated better drug treatments for depression. And then what does the state do? Demonize everyone except the state, subtly scapegoat capitalism along with the profit motive and get a big publicity splash. Another chance to remind us why we need them.
