Matthew's Law: The Tennessee Toxicology That Showed Fatal Benadryl, Not Fatal Kratom

Why it matters

Matthew Davenport's postmortem toxicology showed diphenhydramine (Benadryl) at a fatal 3,000 ng/mL alongside mitragynine at a non-fatal 810 ng/mL. The law named for his death criminalizes the lowest-impact compound on the toxicology page.

The big picture

Tennessee's Matthew's Law is named after Matthew Davenport, whose death was publicly attributed to kratom. The Open Truth Project obtained and published the full toxicology record. It shows four active substances — and the compound named in the legislative campaign was present at a non-fatal concentration, while an over-the-counter antihistamine was present at a fatal one.

Key findings

• Diphenhydramine (Benadryl, OTC): 3,000 ng/mL — a fatal concentration per published forensic literature.
• Duloxetine (antidepressant): 320 ng/mL — very high therapeutic range.
• Buspirone (anxiety medication): 100 ng/mL — major co-factor.
• Mitragynine (kratom): 810 ng/mL — detected, but below the most commonly cited lethal lower bound of 1,590 ng/mL.
• The law criminalizes the compound with the lowest documented toxicological impact in the panel.
• The 1,590 ng/mL reference figure is derived from just 3 cases in a single county and has never been independently replicated.
• Source: subclavian blood, official Tennessee forensic record, published at open-truth.org.

What they say

"A four-substance toxicology should not become a one-substance criminal statute." — Open Truth Project

Bottom line

A bill named after a death should be honest about what the toxicology actually shows. Matthew's Law moves against the compound present at a non-lethal level while the fatal-concentration compound goes unnamed in the legislation.