Utah News Dispatch
With a kratom bill on the table, lawmaker asks — why not write the Word of Wisdom into Utah law?
Lawmakers work in the House Chamber at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
In the midst of a debate to regulate kratom in Utah, a lawmaker made the bold choice to suggest replacing the entire bill for the scripture responsible for most Latter-day Saints skipping coffee, tea and alcohol, known in the faith as the Word of Wisdom.
Arguing that allowed substances like alcohol and tobacco can be deadly and accessible to minors, West Valley City Republican Rep. Matt MacPherson told the House floor Wednesday morning that to him, it was apparent that the Legislature (the majority of whom are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) had a pattern of imposing “moral health codes” upon Utahns.
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“Rather than taking small, little bites at this and kind of playing whack-a-mole in every product that comes on the market,” MacPherson said. “I just assumed we would just go all the way and put into effect a health code that’s already been adopted in vast areas of Utah, and really just impart the wisdom of the Legislature upon the masses on the streets, that just don’t have the same moral clarity we do.”
Latter-day Saints believe the health guidelines in the Word of Wisdom were revealed to the church’s prophet, Joseph Smith, in 1833. In addition to coffee, tea and alcohol, members of the faith are told to avoid substances that “impair judgment or are harmful or highly addictive,” while practicing healthy habits like good diet and exercise.
However, MacPherson’s cheeky proposal did not sit well among lawmakers aiming to strictly regulate kratom this year.
Ogden Republican Rep. Katy Hall, the House sponsor of this year’s most sweeping legislation seeking to take kratom out of convenience stores’ shelves, said she appreciated the “lightheartedness” of MacPherson’s proposal, but for her, this wasn’t a blithe issue.
“Until you’ve had to see opioid addicts at work and how their addiction affects everything in their lives, including the pain control that they have when they’re going into surgery, including the withdrawals that they have, including having to be on other opioid drugs to stop the pain that’s happening when they’re addicted,” Hall said, “I don’t think you understand that it’s different than alcohol. It’s different than tobacco.”
Ultimately, the House rejected the Word of Wisdom substitute bill and voted 63-10 to approve the original proposal. The legislation still needs one last vote from the Senate, which is expected sometime Wednesday.
Kratom has given and taken from chronic pain patients — will Utah ban it?
The bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Assistant Whip Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, recently stepped back from proposing a full ban and now would allow pure leaf kratom to be sold in smoke shops to people over 21 years old in the state. Synthetic products would be prohibited, including those with high concentrations of 7-hydroxymitragynine, an alkaloid known as 7-OH that occurs naturally in the kratom plant but only in a minor quantity.
The proposal has been controversial among users, with some saying family members have died of kratom-related overdoses, and others arguing it’s an almost miraculous plant that has eased their chronic pain for years.
The version poised to become law also includes a provision allowing kratom manufacturers to continue preparing altered kratom products until March 6, 2027, as long as they don’t sell them within Utah.
“Some of the members of the House were concerned that some of these manufacturers, putting them out of business immediately wasn’t fair,” McKell told reporters after the House vote. “So they’re going to have a little bit of runway for the products that we’re banning in the state of Utah.”
McKell’s bill has changed substantially since its inception, but he says he would still like to see a full ban. That’s something Senate President Stuart Adams is on board with.
“(I’m) frustrated some of these companies are actually manufacturing in Utah. I guess I’m OK with the runway we’ve given them, but I’m frustrated that they would gain time. We’ve been told that they only produce pure kratom, and we’re seeing that they need a runway because they don’t,” Adams said.
His guess, Adams added, is that the Legislature will take another try at regulating kratom next year.
