Dan Patrick banned smokable hemp products on March 31, 2026 — a legal industry that had operated in Texas for years, employed thousands, and generated tax revenue. The substances his biggest donors sell? Those remain completely legal and largely unregulated in Texas. The public health data on what those substances actually do to Texans is not subtle.
Alcohol: What the Data Shows
According to the CDC, excessive alcohol use is responsible for approximately 178,000 deaths in the United States each year — shortening the lives of those who die by an average of 24 years. The economic cost of excessive alcohol use was estimated at $249 billion nationally (2010 data). Texas, as the second-largest state, bears a proportionate share of that burden.
The Texas Department of Transportation reports that alcohol-impaired driving remains a leading cause of traffic fatalities in the state year after year. Texas consistently ranks among the top states for drunk driving deaths in absolute numbers. Alcohol is also a contributing factor in a significant share of domestic violence incidents, emergency room visits, and liver disease deaths across the state.
John Nau III — who wrote Patrick a $250,000 check in April 2024 — is the CEO of Silver Eagle Distributors, Texas's largest Anheuser-Busch wholesaler. The Beer Alliance of Texas PAC, which gave Patrick $25,000 in December 2024, represents the beer distribution industry. These are not neutral actors in the public health debate. They profit directly from the sale of a substance that public health data consistently identifies as one of the leading causes of preventable death in Texas.
Opioids: A Crisis by the Numbers
Texas is experiencing what the state's own health department calls a drug poisoning epidemic. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), drug poisoning deaths in Texas increased by 68% from 2019 to 2024. In 2023, drug poisoning was the leading cause of injury-related death for Texans aged 24–69.
The economic toll is staggering. The Perryman Group — a respected Texas economic research firm — estimated that the opioid crisis costs the Texas economy $50.1 billion in gross product every year and is responsible for the loss of more than 516,800 jobs annually (based on 2022 data, including multiplier effects). Those losses compound year over year as long as the crisis persists.
For Texans who died of overdoses in 2022 alone, the projected future economic losses — accounting for lost work-life earnings and productivity — totaled an estimated $114.6 billion in gross product and nearly 1.2 million job-years of employment, according to the Perryman Group's analysis.
The Contrast
Dan Patrick has not made alcohol regulation a priority. He has not championed opioid treatment funding as a signature issue. What he did do — aggressively and repeatedly — was push to ban hemp-derived THC products that competed with his donors' product lines, while those same donors' products continued to kill Texans at a documented, measurable rate.
This site presents that contrast as a matter of public record and documented policy criticism. The statistics above come from the CDC, Texas DSHS, and the Perryman Group — not advocacy organizations. Readers are encouraged to review the primary sources directly.