California Physician Sentenced for Selling

What Happened

Salvador Plasencia, a former physician who owned and operated Malibu Canyon Urgent Care LLC in Calabasas, California, was sentenced on December 3, 2025, to 30 months in federal prison for distributing ketamine. He pleaded guilty on July 23 to four counts of distribution of ketamine. Prosecutors said he repeatedly sold ketamine vials to actor Matthew Perry and to Perry's personal assistant between September 30 and October 12, 2023, knowing the transfers were not for a legitimate medical purpose. The court also fined him $5,600 and ordered him remanded to federal custody. He surrendered his California medical license in September 2025.

“sentenced today to 30 months in federal prison for repeatedly selling vials of ketamine to actor and author Matthew Perry”
U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Dec 3, 2025

Related Guidance

15 Red Flags of Drug Diversion — Behavioral and transactional indicators of diversion.
Investigation Playbook — How to investigate suspected diversion inside an organization.

Sources

U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Dec 3, 2025

Case at a Glance

Setting: Urgent-care clinic
Drug: Ketamine
Method: Sold ketamine vials to a patient and his assistant outside legitimate medical purpose
Status: Sentenced December 3, 2025, to 30 months in federal prison and fined $5,600; pleaded guilty July 23, 2025

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

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Last reviewed: September 2026 · Educational content, not legal advice.

About the author

DivertGuard is built and maintained by Alex Rodriguez, MHIIM, CPhT (also known as Jesus Rodriguez) — a drug diversion prevention program manager with more than a decade in pharmacy practice, including direct responsibility for a health-system controlled substance diversion prevention program.

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2025 — The Rounding Revolution: A High-Tech Approach to Diversion Prevention (with Emily Spiceland, PharmD)
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Credentials

Doctorate candidate — Doctor of Health Informatics (DHI), Rutgers University, School of Health Professions; research on health data analytics and the prediction of cognitive decline
MHIIM — master's in health informatics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center (2019–2021)
CPhT — Certified Pharmacy Technician, with 10+ years of pharmacy practice across retail, hospice, compounding, home-health, and hospital settings

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Penalty Outcomes in the Case Records

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Registry Insights: Sentences, Fines, States and Outcomes

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California Physician Sentenced for Selling Ketamine to Perry