ALBANY, N.Y. -- When the pro-pot rappers Cypress Hill recently tookthe stage of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," one member defiantly lit a jointand another wore a T-shirt advertising a kind of smoking device. Marijuana isn't just their pastime; it's their cause. They tout laws legalizing the drug at every opportunity. They are also the heralds of a new era of conspicuous consumption of drugs and alcohol in music. The "just say no" 1980s seem like long ago. Pro-marijuana songs have become a sub-genre, particularly in rap music.Musicians are falling all over themselves to endorse legalization. And anti-drug organizations say they're alarmed by polls that show usage on therise. "People think it's OK to smoke weed now," Cypress Hill rapper B-Real recently told High Times magazine, a photograph accompanying the interviewshowing his face partly obscured by a cloud of smoke. B-Real has all sorts of company: --Rapper Dr. Dre, who boasted in a song released four years ago that hedidn't smoke weed, named his current album, "The Chronic," after street slang for a potent strain of marijuana. It's been near the top of the chartsfor months. --The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws set up aninformation table at the Lollapalooza Festival, the summer's hottest concert tour. Such bands as the Black Crowes, Spin Doctors, Guns 'N Rosesand Pearl Jam have all advocated the legalization of marijuana. --The rock band Urge Overkill advertises its new album as "recorded incheebaphonic sound." --Some artists even make a statement with their names: Hash, the Alkaholiks and Bongwater are new groups on the scene. It's enough to make some 1960s veterans red-eyed with nostalgia. The drug and booze casualty list of that era would make up an all-star band: Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon. Joplin's drunken stage shows were legendary, and musicians then would think nothing about taking a drag on a marijuana cigarette during an interview. Drug references in music would often take the form of in jokes between aperformer and his audience -- a band name like the Doobie Brothers, for example, or Billy Joel singing about "Captain Jack." But the explicitness of many of today's pro-drug messages makes it difficult to fathom that there was once a debate over whether the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" was a sly homage to LSD. Many of the references dried up during the anti-drug 1980s. Aerosmithtypified the artists who talked about recovery from drug abuse and preachedthe virtues of staying clean. Musicians did anti-drug commercials on MTV. But with a baby boomer in the White House -- one who said he tried marijuana but didn't inhale -- times have changed. "It's like a cool thing -- drinking and smoking weed," says the 22-year-old Los Angeles rapper Hi-C whose new song talks about how he needs a 64-ounce drink to satisfy him -- though a handful of others, such as PublicEnemy's Chuck D, have criticized the increased popularity of 40-ounce maltliquor bottles. Cypress Hill arrived last year with a loopy, slow-motion rap style, smoking marijuana in interviews and bragging about being on the High Timescover. Then came the explosive success of the trio's second album with suchsongs as "Hits From the Bong." Just as the Rolling Stones once carried an inflatable sex organ onstage,a Cypress Hill stage set features a huge marijuana cigarette. And the triobows before it. At concerts by the Black Crowes and others, fans throw dozens of jointsonstage. Officials at NORML once had trouble finding musicians to endorse theirlegalization efforts. No more. When the Black Crowes headlined a recent benefit concert, it attracted 60,000 people. "In 1991, there were virtually no bands doing this," said Allen St. Pierre, NORML's assistant national director. "Now there are 45 to 65 bandseither contacting us directly or openly doing it." The drug craze has added a new word to the popular lexicon: "blunts,"referring to hollowed-out cigars in which the tobacco is replaced by marijuana. Often, the blunts are soaked in malt liquor for sweetening beforebeing smoked. T-shirts advertising Phillies Blunts, the brand of cigar used most frequently in blunts, have become a status symbol. Another popular clothing line features the marijuana leaf symbol. When worn by Dr. Dre in one of his videos, it was blacked out on MTV. In rap, pro-pot songs have become so trendy that each new one is scrutinized for evidence of whether the band really likes marijuana or isjust trying to join the crowd, said Steve Bloom, music editor of High Times. "It's almost become competition," Bloom said. Pharcyde, Redman and Gang Star are among the rappers with pro-pot songs. The Atlanta-based anti-drug group Parents Resource Institute for DrugEducation said its researchers can't tell whether the musicians are leadingthe way or just reflecting what's happening among young people. Either way, PRIDE doesn't like it. "I don't think you've ever before seen an entire line of clothing apparelthat promotes an illicit drug in the fashion that it does," said PRIDE VicePresident Doug Hall. "We think that is a major cultural shift that isoccurring." PRIDE's survey of 250,000 youngsters during the 1992-93 school year showed that marijuana use increased from the year before in all age groups. The survey also showed that black schoolchildren, who traditionally havelagged behind whites in marijuana use, are quickly closing that gap. Forexample, the number of black females in junior high school who smoke marijuana doubled from the year before. Makani Themba, associate director of the Marin Institute, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in San Francisco, said she's disheartened by the music's marketing power. "It's interesting that the things they push are both high volume -- 40s and blunts," Themba said. "It's a lot of stuff to smoke and a lot ofstuff to drink." The rappers in Cypress Hill say they see nothing wrong with marijuana useand won't be saddled with the blame for teen-agers who start smoking. But there's evidence that some artists are thinking about their status as possible role models. The Alkaholiks title their album, "21 And Over." Even Hi-C, who says his song about 40-ounce malt liquors is intended as ajoke, turns serious when he talks about the current marijuana and malt liquorcraze. "I hope they don't start smoking crack," he said. "If they start smokingcrack then it's all over with. I think one thing leads to another." End Adv for Weekend Editions, Oct 22-24 and thereafter