Texas Atty. Gen. Flatly Denies Charges of Marijuana in 1970s

Atty. Gen. Jim Mattox, who has been harassing his Democratic runoff opponent with claims she used drugs, today flatly denied claims by two men that they saw him smoking marijuana in the 1970s.

Mattox, the attorney general, vigorously denied reports today in Dallas and Houston newspapers.

“I’ll tell them that they are liars to their faces,” he said at a news conference.

Mattox has criticized election opponent Ann Richards for refusing to answer yes or no when asked if she ever used an illegal drug, and has accused her of smoking marijuana in the 1970s. He said he is willing to take a lie detector test to dispute the allegations about him.

“I will,” he said. “And I want you to get Ms. Richards strapped in beside me when we do it.”

Houston lawyer Jim Sharp and former Dallas Police Officer Edward H. Lowe signed affidavits that they saw Mattox smoke marijuana on separate occasions.

Lowe said he saw Mattox smoke marijuana in a Dallas apartment during an undercover investigation in the early 1970s, when Mattox was a Dallas lawyer. He said he didn’t arrest Mattox because he was investigating a separate matter.

Sharp said Mattox and he shared a marijuana cigarette in 1974 while in a car after the Democratic state convention in Austin.

“I’ve never used any marijuana or dangerous drugs, period,” Mattox said about the accusations, which Sharp and Lowe made in the Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News.

The incidents the two men described “absolutely did not take place,” Mattox said today.

The drug use issue first was presented at a debate before the March 13 primary. Mattox and former Gov. Mark White denied ever using illegal drugs, but Richards, the state treasurer, refused to answer the question.

Richards, a recovering alcoholic, later said she has not had an alcoholic drink or a mood-altering chemical since leaving an alcohol recovery program in 1980.