Time-sensitive legal note. Kratom became illegal to possess, manufacture, sell, or distribute in Tennessee on July 1, 2026, under Public Chapter 950, known as Matthew Davenport’s Law. Many pages still online describe kratom as legal in Tennessee for adults 21 and older. That is no longer accurate. This article is informational only, is not legal or medical advice, and does not replace an assessment by a licensed clinician. If you are in crisis, call or text 988. If someone is unresponsive or breathing abnormally, call 911.
Why Kratom and Alcohol Now Appear Together in Tennessee Treatment Conversations More Often Than Either Substance Alone
For most of the past decade, kratom sat in a strange regulatory gap in Tennessee. It was sold openly in gas stations, smoke shops, and wellness stores. It was legal for adults 21 and older. And a substantial number of people were using it not recreationally but functionally — for pain, for anxiety, for opioid withdrawal, and, in a pattern that gets far less attention, to cut down on drinking.
That last group is the reason this article exists. A person who replaced a nightly six-pack with kratom powder was, in their own mind, doing something responsible. Then on July 1, 2026, the substance they had substituted in became a criminal offense to possess. Meanwhile the drinking, in many cases, had never fully stopped.
This page covers what the law now says, what the research actually shows about kratom and alcohol together, why withdrawal from the two is dangerous in very different ways, and how treatment in Tennessee is structured for people using both.
What Matthew Davenport’s Law Changed About Kratom Possession and Sale Across Tennessee on July 1, 2026
Tennessee’s prior framework, codified at Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-17-452, scheduled synthetic kratom alkaloids while permitting naturally occurring kratom leaf for adults 21 and older. Public Chapter 950 replaced that approach with a full prohibition.
Coverage from NewsChannel 9 in Chattanooga in July 2026 reported the District Attorney General for Tennessee’s 13th Judicial District reminding residents that kratom has been illegal statewide since July 1 and setting out the offense structure.
| Conduct Under Public Chapter 950 | Offense Classification |
|---|---|
| Knowingly possessing kratom | Class A misdemeanor |
| Manufacturing, delivering, or selling kratom | Class C felony |
| Selling kratom to a minor by an adult at least two years older | Class B felony |
One further provision matters a great deal for public health data and receives almost no attention in consumer coverage: the law requires medical examiners and certain physicians to test for kratom in suspected overdose cases. Tennessee will therefore begin generating something it has never had — systematic post-mortem kratom detection data. Within a few years, the state will know considerably more about kratom’s role in local deaths than it does today.
The measure is named for Matthew Davenport, a Chattanooga man who died in 2024. As reported during the legislative debate, the colloquial title reflects his death following an interaction between kratom and a prescribed medication.
What this means practically for someone using kratom in Tennessee right now
There is no consumer grace period written into the law. The most common practical consequences reported since July 1 are abrupt supply loss — shops cleared shelves — and people going into unplanned withdrawal without warning or preparation.
This page does not offer legal advice. Anyone facing a charge, or uncertain about their position, should speak with a Tennessee-licensed attorney rather than relying on any website, including this one.
How Federal Scheduling of 7-Hydroxymitragynine Is Moving in Parallel With Tennessee’s State-Level Ban
Tennessee did not act in isolation. A separate federal process is running at the same time, and it targets a narrower thing.
The FDA’s public health page on 7-OH products, updated on July 13, 2026, records that on July 1, 2026 the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a Notice of Intent to begin temporary scheduling under the Controlled Substances Act for 7-hydroxymitragynine above a proposed threshold, along with three synthetic 7-OH derivatives that do not occur naturally in the kratom plant. On the same day, HHS opened a 30-day public comment period on the proposed threshold.
The Federal Register notice published July 6, 2026 sets out the proposed thresholds — 0.05% 7-OH for the kratom plant, and either 0.05% or 1 milligram for products further processed into extracts, concentrates, edibles, or pressed pills — and states that a temporary scheduling order would publish on or after August 5, 2026 and remain in effect for two years, with a possible one-year extension.
That notice also contains the safety signal driving the whole thing. DEA’s queries of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System showed a sharp escalation in 7-OH cases.
7-hydroxymitragynine cases recorded in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System
As cited in the DEA notice of intent published in the Federal Register, July 6, 2026. The 2026 figure reflects cases reported as of a February 27, 2026 database query.
2023 — 1 case
2024 — 2 cases
2025 — 66 cases
2026, partial year — 17 cases
Of 86 total cases in the database at that point, 79 were reported as serious, including death, and nine had resulted in death. Separately, DEA’s TOX program identified 7-OH in 85 cases since 2019, of which 55 were fatal.
A note on interpretation, because this is where a lot of writing on the subject goes wrong. Adverse event reporting systems are voluntary and passive. A sharp rise in reported cases partly reflects a rise in the underlying problem and partly reflects rising awareness, rising product availability, and more clinicians knowing to look. These numbers establish a signal worth acting on. They are not a population incidence rate, and anyone presenting them as one is overstating what the data can carry. The Congressional Research Service published a nonpartisan overview of the scheduling process for readers who want the legal mechanics without the advocacy.
What the Research Actually Shows About People Who Use Kratom and Alcohol at the Same Time
This is the part most Tennessee treatment pages skip entirely, and it is the part that matters clinically.
A survey of kratom users cited in peer-reviewed pharmacology literature found that 18% named reducing or quitting alcohol consumption as a reason for using kratom. That is not a fringe motivation. It sits alongside pain management and opioid withdrawal as one of the main self-reported reasons Americans reach for the substance.
The population-level picture is starker. A latent class analysis published in the American Journal on Addictions used 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data covering 412 U.S. adults who reported past-year kratom use plus at least one other substance. It identified three distinct polysubstance profiles.
Polysubstance profiles among U.S. adults reporting past-year kratom use
Falise et al., latent class analysis of 2019 NSDUH data, American Journal on Addictions.
Marijuana, alcohol, tobacco — 63.3%
Marijuana, alcohol, tobacco plus psychedelics — 19.3%
Marijuana, alcohol, tobacco plus psychedelics, heroin, prescriptions — 17.4%
Read the labels rather than the percentages. Alcohol appears in all three classes. Among adults using kratom alongside anything else, alcohol is close to a constant. A Tennessee treatment program that assesses kratom use without asking carefully about drinking is likely to be assessing half a person.
There is also a genuine scientific literature exploring whether kratom alkaloids could be therapeutically useful in alcohol use disorder. Published work in the British Journal of Pharmacology has shown that kratom extracts and specific alkaloids reduce voluntary alcohol drinking in mice, with researchers investigating delta-opioid receptor activity as a possible pathway. A 2024 review in Frontiers in Public Health examined kratom’s possible role as a harm reduction agent across several substance use disorders.
Being precise about what that literature does and does not say matters. These are preclinical rodent studies and observational surveys. The same research groups note that 7-hydroxymitragynine — the alkaloid most effective at reducing alcohol intake in those mouse models — also produced rewarding effects in conditioned place preference and self-administration paradigms, indicating abuse liability, and that withdrawal signs following kratom exposure have been recorded in rodents. No kratom product is FDA-approved for treating alcohol use disorder, and none of this work supports self-treatment. It supports further research.
Why Combining Kratom and Alcohol Carries Risks That Neither Substance Presents on Its Own
Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. Kratom’s principal alkaloids act at mu-opioid receptors, and the FDA has flagged respiratory depression among its concerns about concentrated 7-OH products, noting that respiratory depression from 7-OH can be reversed with naloxone.
Two substances that each suppress respiratory drive, taken together, do not simply add. That is the mechanism behind a large share of depressant-related deaths generally, and it is why “I only had a couple of drinks” is not reassuring when kratom is also on board. The Tennessee legislation’s namesake case, as reported, involved kratom taken alongside a prescribed medication rather than kratom alone.
Product inconsistency compounds it. Kratom sold in the unregulated market has varied enormously in alkaloid concentration between brands, batches, and formats, and concentrated extracts, shots, and pressed tablets can deliver far more 7-OH than raw leaf. Someone who has titrated their own dose over months against one product may have no reliable idea what they are taking when they switch — and after July 1, 2026, any Tennessee supply is by definition an illicit one with no labeling accountability at all.
The Critical Difference Between Alcohol Withdrawal and Kratom Withdrawal That Every Tennessee Family Should Understand
If you take one clinical point from this page, take this one.
| Consideration | Alcohol Withdrawal | Kratom Withdrawal |
|---|---|---|
| Can it be life-threatening? | Yes. Severe withdrawal can involve seizures and delirium tremens and is a medical emergency. | Generally described as opioid-like and highly unpleasant rather than typically life-threatening in itself. |
| Is unsupervised abrupt cessation advisable? | Not for anyone drinking heavily or daily. Medical evaluation first. | Still worth medical guidance, particularly where alcohol or other substances are also involved. |
| What complicates it most? | Prior withdrawal episodes, seizure history, other depressants, poor nutrition, liver disease. | Concurrent alcohol or opioid dependence, and unknown potency of the products used. |
Here is the scenario the July 2026 supply disruption created across Tennessee. A person dependent on both alcohol and kratom loses kratom access overnight. Kratom withdrawal begins. They drink more to manage it — which is exactly what many people do — and then, days later, they crash, stop drinking abruptly too, and enter alcohol withdrawal without supervision.
That sequence is the dangerous one. Not the kratom withdrawal. The unsupervised alcohol withdrawal that follows it. Anyone in that position should be evaluated by a medical professional before stopping drinking, not after something goes wrong. The Tennessee continuum of care includes medically supervised detoxification for precisely this reason.
Understanding the FDA-Approved Medications for Alcohol Use Disorder and the Kratom Question They Raise
Three medications are FDA-approved for alcohol use disorder. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism describes each in its clinician resource. All three are non-addictive, all can be prescribed in primary care, and all are used alone or alongside counseling.
| Medication | How It Works | Point to Raise If Kratom Is Involved |
|---|---|---|
| Naltrexone (oral daily, or monthly injection) | Blocks opioid receptors; can be started while a person is still drinking | Kratom alkaloids act at mu-opioid receptors. Disclose kratom use before starting so the prescriber can assess timing. |
| Acamprosate (two pills, three times daily) | Acts on the glutamatergic system to ease anxiety, restlessness, dysphoria, and insomnia during early abstinence | NIAAA notes it should be initiated as soon as possible after withdrawal, once abstinence is achieved. |
| Disulfiram (one pill daily) | Blocks acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, producing flushing and nausea if alcohol is consumed | Requires a person committed to abstinence and able to take it consistently. |
Why full disclosure of kratom use has become clinically more important, not less
Naltrexone is an opioid receptor blocker. Kratom’s principal alkaloids act at those same receptors. That combination raises a real sequencing question that only a prescriber with the full history can answer — and they cannot answer it if they do not know kratom is in the picture. The predictable effect of Tennessee’s ban is that some people will now conceal kratom use from clinicians out of fear of legal exposure. That is understandable and it is dangerous. Medical confidentiality and the criminal law are not the same system, but if you are worried about it, ask directly about confidentiality at intake rather than simply omitting the information.
Nothing in this section is a recommendation to start, stop, or change any medication. Those decisions belong to a prescriber who has examined you and knows your full history, including liver function, other medications, and pregnancy status.
How Tennessee Structures Levels of Care for Adults With Alcohol Use Disorder and Co-Occurring Substance Use
“Rehab” is a marketing word. Clinicians think in levels of care, and matching the level to actual severity is the decision that most predicts whether treatment holds.
The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services publishes its continuum of care treatment services, spanning medically supervised withdrawal management, residential treatment, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and standard outpatient care. The department also states that it contractually requires community treatment providers to be co-occurring disorders capable, meaning able to address mental health and substance use together rather than sequentially — which matters here, because anxiety and depression are among the most common reasons people gave for using kratom in the first place.
For anyone unsure where to start, the state operates the Tennessee REDLINE at 800-889-9789 for free, confidential treatment referral by call or text, and a Helpline at 800-560-5767 on weekdays. Tennessee also maintains a Behavioral Health Safety Net for uninsured Tennesseans, and publishes recovery support services and peer recovery services alongside clinical care.
Our own material on alcohol addiction, drug addiction, and substance addiction covers the counseling side, and our overview of intensive outpatient programming and outpatient treatment explains how those two levels differ in practice.
How to Evaluate Whether a Tennessee Treatment Program Can Genuinely Handle Kratom Alongside Alcohol
Kratom is new enough, and now legally charged enough, that a lot of programs are improvising. These questions distinguish the ones that have thought it through.
Do you screen for kratom specifically at intake? Standard drug panels do not detect mitragynine. If a program relies on a routine urine screen and never asks the question aloud, kratom use will go unrecorded.
How do you sequence withdrawal management when both alcohol and kratom are involved? You are listening for whether they treat alcohol withdrawal as the priority medical risk. If they talk about kratom detox and never mention seizure risk from alcohol, that is a meaningful gap.
Who prescribes, and are medications for alcohol use disorder available here? A program that does not offer or coordinate naltrexone, acamprosate, or disulfiram is offering counseling alone. That can be appropriate, but you should know it going in.
Are you licensed by TDMHSAS, and for which service categories? Licensure is service-specific; an outpatient license does not authorize residential care. Verify through TDMHSAS licensing and cross-check the state provider directory.
How do you handle disclosure of a now-illegal substance? Ask what their confidentiality policy actually is. A program that has not considered the question since July 1 has not been paying attention.
Who owns the phone number I just called? Many treatment directory listings route callers to paid advertisers rather than facilities. Ask directly who employs the person speaking and whether they receive payment for the referral.
Accreditation by CARF or The Joint Commission is a useful supplementary signal but does not replace state licensure. Our overview of how addiction therapy services are structured describes what these pieces look like once assembled, and our resources on psychological assessments explain why a structured evaluation carries more weight than an intake form.
Why Underlying Anxiety, Depression, and Pain Have to Be Addressed Rather Than Simply Removed Along With the Substance
The most common self-reported reasons Americans give for using kratom are pain, anxiety, depression, and opioid withdrawal. Alcohol gets used for a strikingly similar list.
This is the practical core of co-occurring care. If a person was drinking to sleep and taking kratom to function through chronic back pain, removing both substances without addressing the sleep and the pain leaves them worse off than when they started — and predicts a return to use within weeks. Tennessee’s own department describes co-occurring disorders as the expectation rather than the exception, and a program that treats the substance while ignoring what it was doing for the person is running an outdated model.
That work looks like real pain management referral, treatment for the anxiety or depression in its own right, sleep intervention, and often trauma work. Our broader mental health resources and psychological counseling library cover several of these threads. Where families are affected, our writing on parenting and on building the relational groundwork at home is relevant too, since household stability shapes outcomes for adults as much as for adolescents.
About this page and its limits
Every factual claim here is drawn from a named government, peer-reviewed, or established news source listed below, with dates so you can judge currency. Where the evidence is preclinical rodent research rather than human clinical trial data, we have said so rather than letting it imply more than it supports. Where adverse event data is passive and voluntary, we have flagged that rather than presenting case counts as incidence rates.
The legal position described here reflects Tennessee law as reported in July 2026 and the federal scheduling process as it stood in the same month. Both are actively moving. Check the current Tennessee Code and the Federal Register before relying on anything on this page. Nothing here is legal advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment recommendation. Background on our editorial approach is on our about page, and the full library is indexed on the Hope Counseling Center homepage.
Frequently Asked Questions About Kratom and Alcohol Addiction Treatment in Tennessee
Is kratom still legal in Tennessee for adults 21 and older? No. That was the position under the prior framework. Since July 1, 2026, under Public Chapter 950, possessing kratom is a Class A misdemeanor and manufacturing, delivering, or selling it is a Class C felony. Pages still describing kratom as legal for adults 21 and older are out of date.
Will a standard drug test detect kratom? Routine panels generally do not include mitragynine; specific testing is required. Note that Tennessee’s new law requires medical examiners and certain physicians to test for kratom in suspected overdose cases, so post-mortem and overdose testing in the state has changed.
Can kratom help someone stop drinking? Some people report using it that way, and roughly 18% of kratom users in one published survey cited reducing or quitting alcohol as a reason for use. Preclinical mouse studies have shown kratom alkaloids reducing voluntary alcohol intake. But no kratom product is FDA-approved for alcohol use disorder, the same research documents abuse liability and withdrawal, and it is now illegal to possess in Tennessee. Three approved medications exist for alcohol use disorder and are available through a prescriber.
Which withdrawal should I be more worried about? Alcohol. Severe alcohol withdrawal can involve seizures and delirium tremens and is a medical emergency. Kratom withdrawal is typically described as opioid-like and very unpleasant rather than life-threatening on its own. Anyone drinking heavily or daily should be medically evaluated before stopping.
Should I tell a treatment program I have been using kratom, now that it is illegal? The clinical case for disclosure is strong — it directly affects withdrawal planning and medication sequencing, particularly with naltrexone. If you have concerns about how that information is handled, ask about the program’s confidentiality policy at intake, and speak with a Tennessee-licensed attorney about any legal exposure.
What if someone cannot afford treatment? Tennessee operates a Behavioral Health Safety Net for uninsured residents, and the REDLINE at 800-889-9789 provides free, confidential referral by call or text.
References and Citations
Lewis, K. (2026, July 14). District attorney reminds Tennesseans kratom is now illegal. NewsChannel 9 / WTVC, Chattanooga. Retrieved from https://newschannel9.com/news/local/district-attorney-reminds-tennesseans-kratom-is-now-illegal-tennessee-house-matthew-davenport
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Hiding in Plain Sight: 7-OH Products (page updated July 13, 2026). Retrieved from https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/hiding-plain-sight-7-oh-products
Drug Enforcement Administration. (2026, July 6). Schedules of Controlled Substances: Temporary Placement of 7-Hydroxymitragynine Above a Specified Threshold in Schedule I. Federal Register. Retrieved from https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/06/2026-13580/schedules-of-controlled-substance-temporary-placement-of-7-hydroxymitragynine-above-a-specified
Congressional Research Service. Temporary Control of 7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) and Related Substances Under the Controlled Substances Act (LSB11457). Retrieved from https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB11457
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Recommend Evidence-Based Treatment: Know the Options. Core Resource on Alcohol. Retrieved from https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/health-professionals-communities/core-resource-on-alcohol/recommend-evidence-based-treatment-know-options
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Medications Development Program. Retrieved from https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/medications-development-program
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and NIAAA. Medication for the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder: A Brief Guide. Retrieved from https://library.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/sma15-4907.pdf
Green, M., Vadiei, N., Veltri, C. A., Grundmann, O., & Evoy, K. E. (2024). Kratom as a potential substance use disorder harm reduction agent. Frontiers in Public Health, 12:1416689. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1416689/full
Falise, A. M., Hoeflich, C. C., Nutley, S. K., Lopez-Quintero, C., & Striley, C. W. (2023). Polysubstance use profiles among US adults using kratom (Mitragyna speciosa): A latent class analysis using the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. American Journal on Addictions, 32, 76–80. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36222599/
Evaluation of Kratom Opioid Derivatives as Potential Treatment Option for Alcohol Use Disorder. PubMed Central. Retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8596301/
G protein-biased kratom-alkaloids and synthetic carfentanil-amide opioids as potential treatments for alcohol use disorder. British Journal of Pharmacology, via PubMed Central. Retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7060366/
Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Continuum of Care Treatment Services. Retrieved from https://www.tn.gov/behavioral-health/substance-abuse-services/treatment/continuum.html
Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Co-Occurring Disorders. Retrieved from https://www.tn.gov/behavioral-health/substance-abuse-services/treatment/co-occurring-disorders.html
Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Licensing. Retrieved from https://www.tn.gov/behavioral-health/licensing.html
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2025, November 24). NSDUH Behavioral Health Barometer: Tennessee, Volume 8. Retrieved from https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/nsduh-behavioral-health-barometer-tennessee-volume-8