When Matthew Perry passed away on October 28, many people wondered if he relapsed or whether his passing was in any way related to his long history of drug use/abuse. I believed Perry’s friends, all of whom said that he had found an enormous amount of peace in the years before his death, that he was clean and sober. Jennifer Aniston recently said Perry had even quit smoking. In 2022, he detailed his lengthy sobriety journey in his memoir, and he wrote and said that all told, he spent about $9 million on multiple rehabs and everything else. Well, sad news – the coroner’s report came out on Friday and it looks like Perry had taken ketamine.

Matthew Perry’s cause of death has been determined.

The Friends actor died due to acute effects of ketamine, according to an autopsy report obtained by PEOPLE. Drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects (a medication used to treat opioid use disorder) were also listed as contributing factors in his death, which was ruled accidental.

Ketamine is a “dissociative anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects,” per the US Drug Enforcement Administration. It “distorts the perception of sight and sound and makes the user feel disconnected and not in control,” and “can induce a state of sedation (feeling calm and relaxed), immobility, relief from pain, and amnesia.”

The autopsy states that Perry — who was “reportedly clean for 19 months” — was on ketamine infusion therapy, with his latest treatment taking place just “one and a half weeks before” his death. However, the coroner noted that “the ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less.”

Per the autopsy, Perry’s death occurred by “unknown route of drug intake.” The coroner stated that Perry was found “in a residential pool,” with prescription medications and loose pills present at his residence but “none reported near the pool” or “adjacent to the pool.” The autopsy also notes that there were “no signs of fatal trauma or no foul play suspected.”

“At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,” the coroner states in the report. “Drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness.”

[From People]

Just to underline the point – Perry was clean for 19 months before he began “ketamine infusion therapy,” but the ketamine in his system did not come from an infusion therapy session. Ketamine used to be – and perhaps still is? – a popular club drug and it’s also known as Special K. I would imagine that someone with money and access (like Perry) would be able to easily get his hands on it. All of this is so tremendously sad – Perry never hid the fact that he was an addict who relapsed multiple times, and he hoped that talking about all it openly would help other people begin their sobriety journeys. That hasn’t changed. Lots of sober addicts relapse, as Perry did multiple times over the course of his life as well. It’s just sad, I still feel so sorry for his parents and his friends.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images, Instagram.