Just five miles from the Dolby Theatre, where Hollywood stars gathered for tonight's glamorous Oscars ceremony, lies an unremarkable apartment block in an unremarkable part of town.
On previous Oscars nights it would have been there in north Hollywood that Jasveen Sangha would have got ready before allegedly making the short trip to rub shoulders with the A-listers. But this year 41-year-old Sangha – dubbed the Ketamine Queen by prosecutors – was in jail awaiting trial on charges that she sold the ketamine that killed Friends star Matthew Perry.
For Kayti Edwards, who dated the actor in 2006 before becoming his assistant, Sangha’s alleged presence at high-profile events such as the Oscars was a sign of how endemic – and tolerated – drug use is in Hollywood. Kayti said: “I don’t think she had a purse full of drugs at the Oscars… I think she was treating it like a networking party. When you hang around all these powerful people with money, opportunity always presents itself. She would have definitely made some contacts there.”
Sangha has denied conspiracy to distribute ketamine but, according to prosecutors, her alleged network was packed with A-listers. Her indictment reads: “She only deals with high-end and celebs… and was a major source of supply for ketamine to others as well as Perry.”
And when police raided her home, they uncovered what they called a “drug-selling emporium”, which they claim was the hub of a vast operation dealing in methamphetamine, cocaine, Xanax and her alleged speciality, ketamine.
Police found 79 bottles of liquid ketamine, almost 2,000 methamphetamine pills and a handgun. When the Mirror visited her apartment, which was dubbed “the Sangha Stash House” by police, we found that her neighbours in the block had been largely unaware of what was allegedly going on.
OJ Olajuwon Thomas moved in shortly after she was arrested. He said: “All the neighbours I’ve spoken to say she was a really lovely, regular woman, although she always had music playing.” He said it wasn’t until they heard a “loud bang in the middle of the night” when the property was raided that the neighbours realised anything was up.
And by all accounts, Sangha was not around much. She appears to have had enough money to fund an extravagant lifestyle, with trips to Mexico, Spain, Italy, Greece, Japan, France, Dubai and Antigua. Social media posts show her love of a party. At her 40th bash, she was pictured in a pink dress and cowboy hat at the plush Kiss Kiss Bang Bang lounge bar inside a boutique hotel in LA.
Kayti,who remained friends with Perry right up until he died in his hot tub, aged 54, in October, 2023, says she understands why celebrities like him may have turned to fixers. She explained: “It wasn’t like Matthew could score drugs off the street. It’s all networking. It’s all who you can trust.”
Working as his assistant, Kayti came to understand why so many stars end up addicted to drugs. She said: “It’s down to the celebrity lifestyle – people with a lot of money and a lot of time on their hands who just get bored. They hide out in their house because they can’t go out and do many public things without being hassled. Some celebrities, such as Charlie Sheen, or Keith Richards, don’t try and hide it.
“But people who have an image and something to lose, like Matthew who had this good boy image from Friends… he would never have wanted to tarnish that so he did his drugs secretly.” Kayti says Hollywood has had issues with drug addiction for years. She added: “In my 20s, cocaine was the big, big drug back then, and then it was heroin, and now it’s fentanyl and ketamine.”
Sangha is scheduled to stand trial alongside Salvador Plasencia, a doctor who allegedly used Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa to distribute ketamine to the actor. Iwamasa has already pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute ketamine causing death after “repeatedly injecting Perry with the drug without medical training”.
Doctor Mark Chavez and Erik Fleming have also pleaded guilty to various offences related to Perry’s ketamine use. Perry’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, has previously stated that she was “thrilled” that charges had been brought. But Kayti said Perry would have felt mixed emotions. She said: “The high Matthew would feel guilt for sure as it was his decision to take the drugs.
“But the sober Matthew would be like, ‘You know what? Guys, we took these actions, and now we have to deal with the consequences. I’m sorry I put you through this, but you know, this kind of cycle needs to stop’.”
Kayti had to walk away from her job with Perry after his addiction took hold. She even saw him giving envelopes of cash to nurses to buy drugs. But she says she has some sympathy for those people who got caught up in his circle. She said: “It was hard to say no to Matthew. You could say to him, ‘Matthew, I can’t come today’, and he would give you $5,000, or then $10,000. He never took no for an answer. So he kind of put these people in situations where it was hard.”
Despite his death, Kayti does not expect Hollywood’s love affair with drugs to end any time soon. She said: “Matthew was just, sadly, part of the whole cycle.There will be more. I don’t think people care. It’s like Russian roulette, especially these days.”
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