One of the doctors charged in the death of Matthew Perry is already getting back to business, almost as usual, because while he's allowed to treat patients ... there are some federal strings attached.
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00:00Well, this is yet another shocking development in the aftermath of the Matthew Perry arrests,
00:06the five people who were arrested and charged in his death.
00:11And two of them, as we've told you, are doctors.
00:14And we also told you that the two doctors, Mark Chavez and Salvador Placencia, have had
00:19their – the DEA has pulled their registration so that they cannot prescribe controlled substances.
00:25That is not stopping at least one of them from going back into business.
00:30As early as today, we found out that Dr. Salvador Placencia is planning to open up his clinic
00:37in his urgent care in Malibu as early as today and will be able to see patients.
00:46It's going to be a little different, but essentially he gets to go back to business almost as usual.
00:53And that's kind of surprising for someone who is still charged with contributing the
01:00ketamine that killed Matthew Perry.
01:02And could ultimately face like 120 years in prison, John.
01:06Right.
01:07But he is not convicted at this point.
01:09He is just accused and will have his day in court.
01:12And until then, the DEA has made arrangements with him that allow him to go back to business
01:19and open this clinic.
01:20But it's going to – it will be different for his patients.
01:23In several ways.
01:24Some of those ways, you have to provide a written consent.
01:27And also that Dr. Placencia has to provide the patients notice that he's under this
01:32investigation right now and just the circumstances surrounding his criminal case.
01:38And even though we pointed out yesterday that both Dr. Placencia and Dr. Chavez can no longer
01:45prescribe prescription medications, that's only for controlled substances.
01:50So that would be for drugs like ketamine.
01:54But in this case, he can actually still be prescribing patients uncontrolled substances
02:00like antibiotics.
02:01So I guess if you have a flu or something like that, you could still go see Dr. Placencia.
02:06And that's mostly what doctors are going to prescribe.
02:08It's normally not strong narcotics.
02:10I would say this.
02:11There are 100,000 plus doctors in Los Angeles.
02:14Why – or in California, excuse me.
02:15Why would you ever go see someone who has been accused even if he's not guilty?
02:20Why see somebody whose judgment has been called into question to this degree?
02:24I just don't get it.
02:25It seems weird.
02:26Like the awkward conversation.
02:27And Jake, this is what you're saying.
02:29He has to actually verbally tell any patient that comes in that he sees that he has been
02:34charged in Matthew Perry's death.
02:37He is facing this charge and this charge and this charge.
02:41And then they have to actually sign a consent note before he can even treat them.
02:48It just seems like a lot of steps.
02:50At the same time, Charles, don't you think in a way he's doing this because he's pleading
02:54not guilty.
02:55So by going back to his practice, seeing patients, going about business as usual, maybe it's
03:00trying to show, at least be a front-facing that, hey, I did nothing wrong.
03:05I did nothing wrong.
03:06I'm just going to go on with my life.
03:07Right.
03:08Remember, this is the doctor, by the way, that the authorities say referred to Matthew
03:11Perry as a moron in the text messages to Dr. Sanchez.
03:13I guess he won't have to get into that detail with patients.
03:17Certainly, they may have read it.
03:19And we'll see what happens when he opens the door.
03:22He can open the doors.
03:23It doesn't mean that people are going to come in, but we'll see.
03:27I'm so curious if patients come back to him.
03:29I also think that there will be some curiosity, some sort of macabre curiosity where there
03:35are people who want to go in and actually see him.
03:38And maybe they even want to talk about the case, which I'm sure his lawyers have told
03:42him not to.
03:43Right.
03:44I hadn't thought about that.
03:45But there will be people who will go in and want to do that.
03:47Hi, I'm Ali from Dallas.
03:48And yeah, this story is insane.
03:49No amount of curiosity could get me to go visit this doctor.
03:50And so while I do agree with the DA's decision to strip them of their rights to prescribe
03:51medication, I do think that this just needs to be the beginning.
03:52I think that every every prescription they've written should be investigated.
03:53And I also think that they should lose their licenses and their ability to practice.
03:54You know, as someone who's a patient, I wouldn't want to go see that doctor, especially based
03:55on what I've heard.
03:56I'm not a doctor.
03:57I'm not a lawyer.
03:58I'm not a lawyer.
03:59I'm not a lawyer.
04:00I'm not a lawyer.
04:01I'm not a lawyer.
04:02I'm not a lawyer.
04:03I'm not a lawyer.
04:04I'm not a lawyer.
04:05I'm not a lawyer.
04:06Yes.
04:07By the way that the text message about where the the feds say that he referred to Mecca
04:34Perry as a moron.
04:35it was maybe a bad joke or in poor taste, but he said he didn't have the full context
04:42of the conversation, so those are things that will probably come out in court should this
04:47go forward.
04:48Right now he's pled not guilty, so we'll see if Dr. Placentia has an explanation for that
04:54part of it.