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ALBANY, N.Y. -- When the pro-pot rappers Cypress Hill recently took

Pro-pot rap group Cypress Hill and other musicians are advocating for the legalization of marijuana through their music, signaling a new era of drug and alcohol consumption in the music industry. Anti-drug organizations express concern over rising drug usage.

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ALBANY, N.Y. -- When the pro-pot rappers Cypress Hill recently took

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  1. ALBANY, N.Y. -- When the pro-pot rappers Cypress Hill recently took

  2. the stage of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," one member defiantly lit a joint

  3. and another wore a T-shirt advertising a kind of smoking device.

  4. Marijuana isn't just their pastime; it's their cause.

  5. They tout laws legalizing the drug at every opportunity.

  6. They are also the heralds of a new era of conspicuous consumption of

  7. drugs and alcohol in music. The "just say no" 1980s seem like long ago.

  8. Pro-marijuana songs have become a sub-genre, particularly in rap music.

  9. Musicians are falling all over themselves to endorse legalization. And

  10. anti-drug organizations say they're alarmed by polls that show usage on the

  11. rise.

  12. "People think it's OK to smoke weed now," Cypress Hill rapper B-Real

  13. recently told High Times magazine, a photograph accompanying the interview

  14. showing his face partly obscured by a cloud of smoke.

  15. B-Real has all sorts of company:

  16. --Rapper Dr. Dre, who boasted in a song released four years ago that he

  17. didn't smoke weed, named his current album, "The Chronic," after street

  18. slang for a potent strain of marijuana. It's been near the top of the charts

  19. for months.

  20. --The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws set up an

  21. information table at the Lollapalooza Festival, the summer's hottest

  22. concert tour. Such bands as the Black Crowes, Spin Doctors, Guns 'N Roses

  23. and Pearl Jam have all advocated the legalization of marijuana.

  24. --The rock band Urge Overkill advertises its new album as "recorded in

  25. cheebaphonic sound."

  26. --Some artists even make a statement with their names: Hash, the

  27. Alkaholiks and Bongwater are new groups on the scene.

  28. It's enough to make some 1960s veterans red-eyed with nostalgia.

  29. The drug and booze casualty list of that era would make up an all-star

  30. band: Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon.

  31. Joplin's drunken stage shows were legendary, and musicians then would

  32. think nothing about taking a drag on a marijuana cigarette during an

  33. interview.

  34. Drug references in music would often take the form of in jokes between a

  35. performer and his audience -- a band name like the Doobie Brothers, for

  36. example, or Billy Joel singing about "Captain Jack."

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