The entrance to the San Francisco Medical Cannabis Clinic in San Francisco, Monday, Oct. 19, 2009. Pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in states that allow medical marijuana, prosecutors were told in a new policy memo issued by the Justice Department. (AP)

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Before 1914, drug use was no crime in America — and millions of Americans were addicted to tonics peddled off the back of wagons and laced with opium or coca. Then came the big crackdown.

Now, “medical marijuana” is on the move. Fourteen states permit its use. And pretty broad use. LA has a thousand medical marijuana shops. In Colorado, thousands of young men have suddenly complained of chronic pain and signed up.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice officially said it will not prosecute what the states accept. Is defacto decriminalization on the way?

This hour, On Point: Marijuana, medical marijuana, and the law.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Josh Meyer, reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He reported on the Justice Department’s new policy on medical marijuana, announced last week. LATimes.com offers an interactive map of medical marijuana dispensaries in LA, and a map showing the states that have legalized medical marijuana.

Also from Washington we’re joined by Peter Cohen, adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University and the chair of the Physicians Health Program of the District of Columbia Medical Society.

And from Los Angeles we’re joined by Mark Kleiman, professor of policy studies and director of the Drug Policy Analysis Center at UCLA. His most recent book is “When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment.”

Image from the website of FOX's "More to Love" (fox.com/moretolove).

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Americans are bigger than ever, by a long shot. Heavier. Fatter.

And maybe more culturally torn than ever over fat. A broad swath of the country has just accepted a heavier profile as the way it is. The way we are. In TV’s “More to Love” and plus-size model Glamour shots, heavy is fine.

But the backlash is fierce, too. Jessica Simpson pummeled for a few extra pounds. Fat disdain aplenty. And the health care debate highlighting the cost of obesity in health care budgets out of control.

This hour, On Point: Overweight America — accepted or rejected — and the cost of our pounds.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from New York is Kate Dailey, health and lifestyles editor for Newsweek and writer of Newsweek’s blog The Human Condition, where she’s been following the debate over American weight. She edited and wrote for Newsweek’s recent series “The Fat Wars.”

In our studio we’re joined by Lesley Kinzel. She runs the blog Fatshionista, “a heady mixture of social justice, fat-girl memoir, and popular culture.”  She has been engaging in fat activism and social justice politics for over a decade. When not blogging, she works in higher education in the Boston area.

And from Washington we’re joined by Kenneth E. Thorpe, executive director of Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, executive director of the Emory Institute for Advanced Policy Solutions, and chairman of the department of health policy and management at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. His Sept. 10 Newsweek commentary, “We Have the Power to Change Our Weight,” argues that obesity is a health and an economic crisis.

Asia Johnson receives an intranasal H1N1 vaccine, Boston, Oct. 9, 2009. (AP)

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Ordinary flu kills thousands of people a year, but most are over 65 with underlying health problems.

H1N1 “swine flu” is different. Fully a third of those it kills are healthy, robust, often young.

Last week, H1N1 vaccine began its national rollout. The public still has questions.

Pundit Bill Maher told fans, “If u get a swine flu shot ur an idiot.” Medical professionals say you may be an idiot if you don’t.

This Hour, On Point: We’ll we’ll look at the new pandemic, with questions and answers on H1N1 and the swine flu vaccination program unfolding across the country right now.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Maggie Fox, health and science editor at Reuters

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

William Schaffner, professor and chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

 

Some answers on the H1N1 vaccine, at the NY Times.

A plastic 55 gallon barrel is seen among piles of driftwood and mud along the Potomac River in Cropley, Md., Feb. 8, 2006. (AP)

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For years now, the stories have been piling up. Frogs and salamanders with extra legs. “Intersex fish,” neither male or female. Eighty percent of male smallmouth bass in the Potomac producing eggs.

And the apparent culprit: chemicals in the water — endocrine disruptors — that are also in our water and everyday household items.

Now scientists are tracking large increases in genital deformities in newborn boys, early-onset puberty in girls, obesity and diabetes in animals and humans, and warning that these, too, could have a chemical cause.

This hour, On Point: Danger in the water — endocrine disruptors, and their long reach.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Amherst, Mass., is R. Thomas Zoeller, professor and chair of biology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is one of the authors a 50-page scientific statement by the Endocrine Society, “Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals,” which was cited by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in his column for Sunday, June 28. (Also see Kristof’s followup blog post on the topic.)

Joining us from Washington is Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and epidemiologist. She is a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 1993 she was appointed by President Clinton to serve as Assistant Administrator for the EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, where she served for five years.

Residents wear surgical masks as they exit the subway in Mexico City on Monday, April 27, 2009. (AP)

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1976, Fort Dix, New Jersey. An outbreak of swine flu among military recruits. Washington feared a pandemic. Stepped in big. Immunized 40 million Americans. But the flu just disappeared.

2009, in Mexico, New Zealand, New York, Kansas, Texas, the UK, and now Israel, Spain, and more — swine flu is making big headlines again. Spreading. Killing in Mexico. Moving up the WHO pandemic scale, now to Phase 4 of 6.

Will it roar? Or vanish? And could a flu born in warm Mexico spread right through the summer?

This hour, On Point: The science and threat of the swine flu outbreak, 2009.

You can join the conversation. Are you double-washing your hands yet? Have you been traveling — maybe catching, or worried that you’ve caught this new virus? And what questions do you still have, after all the reporting, the calls of alarm and for calm? Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Mexico City is Victor Hugo Michel, special affairs reporter for Milenio, one of the biggest national dailies in Mexico.

From San Antonio, we’re joined by Don Finley, medical reporter San Antonio Express-News. He’s covering the swine flu investigation in Guadalupe County.

Joining us from Atlanta is Dr. Joe Bresee, M.D., chief of epidemiology and prevention in the Influenza Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

From Washington we’re joined by Dr. Michael Greger, M.D., director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. An expert on animal-to-human diseases, he’s author of “Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching.”

And from New York we’re joined by Delthia Ricks, health reporter for Newsday and author of “100 Questions & Answers About Influenza.”

More links:

The CDC website offers information on the swine flu, including questions and answers on symptoms, treatment, and prevention.

In this CDC video, Dr. Bresee talks about the swine flu, its symptoms, transmission, and treatment: