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ALBANY, N.Y. -- When the pro-pot rappers Cypress Hill recently took
the stage of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," one member defiantly lit a joint
and 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 the
rise.
"People think it's OK to smoke weed now," Cypress Hill rapper B-Real
recently told High Times magazine, a photograph accompanying the interview
showing 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 he
didn'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 charts
for months.
--The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws set up an
information table at the Lollapalooza Festival, the summer's hottest
concert tour. Such bands as the Black Crowes, Spin Doctors, Guns 'N Roses
and Pearl Jam have all advocated the legalization of marijuana.
--The rock band Urge Overkill advertises its new album as "recorded in
cheebaphonic 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 a
performer 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. Aerosmith
typified the artists who talked about recovery from drug abuse and preached
the 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 Public
Enemy's Chuck D, have criticized the increased popularity of 40-ounce malt
liquor bottles.
Cypress Hill arrived last year with a loopy, slow-motion rap style,
smoking marijuana in interviews and bragging about being on the High Times
cover. Then came the explosive success of the trio's second album with such
songs 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 trio
bows before it.
At concerts by the Black Crowes and others, fans throw dozens of joints
onstage.
Officials at NORML once had trouble finding musicians to endorse their
legalization 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 bands
either 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 before
being 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 is
just 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 Drug
Education said its researchers can't tell whether the musicians are leading
the 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 apparel
that promotes an illicit drug in the fashion that it does," said PRIDE Vice
President Doug Hall. "We think that is a major cultural shift that is
occurring."
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 have
lagged behind whites in marijuana use, are quickly closing that gap. For
example, 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 of
stuff to drink."
The rappers in Cypress Hill say they see nothing wrong with marijuana use
and 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 a
joke, turns serious when he talks about the current marijuana and malt liquor
craze.
"I hope they don't start smoking crack," he said. "If they start smoking
crack then it's all over with. I think one thing leads to another."
End Adv for Weekend Editions, Oct 22-24 and thereafter