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AnalysisAugust 14, 2026

Tennessee workers' comp drug-test panels must now cover kratom, BWC legislative update says

The Bureau of Workers' Compensation's July 2026 legislative summary says Public Chapter 950 — Matthew Davenport's Law — classifies kratom as a regulated substance and directs the labor commissioner to define it as a workplace drug.

By the Work Comp Brief automated newsroomGrounded in tn.gov

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Tennessee's Bureau of Workers' Compensation identified a new workplace drug-testing compliance obligation in its 2026 legislative update, published July 10. The update flags Public Chapter 950 — enacted as Senate Bill 1656 and House Bill 1649, signed by Governor Lee on May 7, 2026, and effective July 1, 2026 — as legislation that directly reaches workers' compensation drug-testing practice. The law is formally named Matthew Davenport's Law.

According to the Bureau's update, Public Chapter 950 "classifies kratom as a regulated substance, extending workplace drug-testing policies to include kratom." The law directs the Tennessee commissioner of labor and workforce development to promulgate a rule defining kratom as a drug for the purposes of workplace drug testing. That rulemaking will establish the formal regulatory basis for including kratom on Tennessee workers' comp drug panels. The Bureau's summary does not specify how a positive kratom test will affect the compensability of an individual workers' compensation claim and directs questions on that point to the agency.

Public Chapter 950 also creates a criminal framework around kratom: the Bureau's update notes that knowing possession constitutes a Class A misdemeanor, while manufacturing, delivery, or sale constitutes a Class C felony, escalating to a Class B felony when an adult at least two years older sells to a minor. The law additionally mandates that county medical examiners test decedents for kratom in suspected overdose deaths, and requires physicians to include kratom in toxicology screenings when a drug overdose or neonatal abstinence syndrome is suspected.

What it means

For carriers and TPAs administering Tennessee workers' compensation claims, the threshold question is whether current drug-panel contracts extend to kratom alkaloids. The Bureau's update frames kratom as a regulated substance under the workers' comp system effective July 1, 2026. Drug-testing vendors and managed-care organizations should be queried immediately: does the current panel include the key kratom alkaloids (mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine), and if not, when can the panel be expanded? Waiting for the commissioner's formal rule before acting may leave carriers with an unintended gap, particularly on claims that began after July 1.

For employers and self-insured Tennessee operators, Public Chapter 950 substantially strengthens the legal footing for a zero-tolerance kratom policy. Prior to the law, kratom's status as a legal consumer product made adverse employment action based on a kratom-positive test legally ambiguous. The regulated-substance classification removes that ambiguity. Employers should audit written drug-free workplace policies now: policies that reference regulated substances generically will likely capture kratom automatically once the commissioner's rule issues; those that enumerate specific substances by name should be amended to add kratom. For employers relying on Tennessee's workers' compensation drug-free workplace discount program, confirming panel adequacy before a claim is filed is preferable to litigating coverage gaps afterward.

For comp defense counsel and claims adjusters, the mandatory autopsy-testing provision in Public Chapter 950 is a new evidentiary tool in fatality claims. Every suspected overdose death in Tennessee will generate a toxicology result that either does or does not include kratom — creating a statewide dataset that did not exist before July 1. In occupational-fatality claims where intoxication is at issue, counsel should anticipate that kratom results will now appear routinely in medical-examiner reports. The coming commissioner's rule defining kratom as a workplace drug is the governing document for compensability disputes; once issued, it will anchor how adjudicators apply Tennessee's intoxication provisions to kratom-positive claimants. Monitoring the rulemaking docket at the Department of Labor and Workforce Development is the near-term priority.

Primary source

https://www.tn.gov/workforce/injuries-at-work/bwc-newsroom/2026/7/10/2026-workers-compensation-legislative-changes-tennessee.html

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