WASHINGTON -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson and the chairman of a congressional committee on drug abuse today called on President Reagan to declare a nationwide war on drugs in the wake of University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias' cocaine death.

The civil rights leader and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., demanded that the president and his administration seek increased funding of federal anti-drug education programs for schools across the United States.

Dr. John Smialek, the Maryland state medical examiner, said Tuesday that Bias died of cardiac arrest triggered by 'cocaine intoxication' in what was possibly his first experience with the drug.

'There was no evidence of long term use of cocaine,' Smialek said.

At a Capitol Hill news conference today, Rangel, the chairman of the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control lashed out at the Reagan administration's efforts to fight drugs.

'It is imperative that we begin a massive campaign to teach our children the dangers of drug abuses and to rid our communities once and for all of drugs,' Rangel told reporters.

'Let's not let Len Bias' death go without swift reaction,' the congressman said.

Jackson said, 'We must have a war on drugs. Drugs pose a national security threat and a youth and family threat. Drug use in the U.S. today is a national epidemic.'

Rangel urged the passage of legislation authorizing $3.7 billion over the next five years to assist state and municipal governments in drug prevention programs, and another plan authorizing $100 million for drug abuse programs in elementary and secondary schools.

In another development, the academic adviser for the Maryland basketball team, saying education is not the main priority of Coach Lefty Driesell, resigned in the wake of the death of the Terrapins' star.

Wendy Whittemore told The Washington Post five of the basketball team's 12 players, including Bias, flunked out last semester. She also said players are under great pressure to perform on the court and are 'depressed and angry.'

Friends of the 6-foot-8 forward also said they believed if Bias was indeed using cocaine when he died last Thursday, it was the first time he had experimented with the drug.

Minutes or seconds after snorting the drug, Bias went into seizure in his dormitory room, the medical examiner said.

He collapsed Thursday after what Smialek described as 'an interruption of the normal electrical control of his heartbeat, resulting in the sudden onset of seizures and cardiac arrest.'

A toxicological report showed that Bias, selected second overall in last week's NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, had no evidence of any other drugs in his system, Smialek said.

The cocaine in Bias' blood measured 6.5 milligrams per liter. But Smialek said the quantity of the drug Bias ingested was not important.

'There is no particular level that we can call a fatal level,' he said. 'At this level, the drug was fatal for Len Bias.'

Smialek said compared to other cocaine fatalities in the state, the amount of cocaine in Bias' blood was 'average.'

The Tuesday report did not surprise Prince George's County Attorney Arthur Marshall, who had already made statements linking Bias' death to cocaine use and is leading a grand jury investigation in the case.

'It's exactly very clear what I thought it was going to be. There's no surprises there at all,' he said. 'Anybody that takes a damn straw to their nose ought to think, 'It can happen to me if it can happen to Len Bias.''