rights for transgender kids at the expense of parents rights, much of europe is tapping the brakes. even sweden, the first to legalize the practice 40 years ago, has banned the procedures for minors. dan, thank you. bret: the 2024 election may turn out to be a referendum on i think probably may not have been aware of a few years ago, a ligue nau the term. tonight mark meredith reports on the gop war against woke. it s one of florida governor s ron de santis most memorable lines. florida is where woke goes to die. and voters want to hear about lanes to battle wokeness. the wall street journal polled videoers it found more people would rather hear about plans to combat wokeness in schools and businesses over preventing cuts to medicare and social security. the woke represents a war on
craft was due for its first test flight but according to spacex ceo elon musk a pressure valve was frozen so the launch scrubbed. spacex will attempt to launch again on thursday. tonight we re folk using on the impact of the em-opioid crisis heroin the west coast with san francisco and seattle among the major cities in the grip of this american epidemic. correspondent dan springer takes a closer look tonight from seattle. a recent fentonen awl overdose on the streets of seattle expo another life lost to an epidemic that is now killing far more americans than covid. seattle is averaging more than 25 drug overdose deaths a week, a 30% increase over last year which set a record. san francisco is even worse. it s had 1,000 more overdose deaths and covid fatalities in the three years since the corrin virus pandemic hit.
strips for free. law enforcement has large le been absent. there have to be consequences for their action, consequence-free use of controlled substances will lead naturally to these kinds of deaths and public safety issues. unlike during the first years of covid when government threw just about everything at trying to bend the curve, it seems powerless to address the fentonen awl crisis, whether it s blocking the supply or shrinking the demand that s not getting done, the death toll just continues to rise. jonathan? dan, thank you very much indeed. now, first up in tonight s crime roundup, four young people were killed and at least 32 injured when shooting broke out at a sweet 16 birthday party in alabama saturday. flown word yet on who shot into the crowd or why. 1 of the dead include the older brother of the birthday girl. in missouri a black teen abler was shot by a white home owner when he showed up at the wrong house. 16 year old ralph yarl was trying to pick up his younge
you look at what we have done with cannabis to legalize it, that s a step in that direction. oregon has gone the furthest. decriminalizing simple possession of all drugs, including fentanyl. among the results, open air drug markets in portland and a death toll rising dramatically. the governmentens response has focused mainly on harm reduction. there are now vending machines in seattle where anyone can get naloxone to treat someone who has overdosed and fentanyl test strips for free. law enforcement has largely been absent. there have to be consequences to the action. consequence free use of controlled substances will lead naturally to these kinds of deaths and public safety issues. unlike during the first years of covid. the government seems almost powerless to address the fentanyl crisis. whether it s blocking the drug from getting into the u.s. or shrinking demand here that s not getting done. the death toll just continues to rise. bret? bret: dan springer in seattle, dan, t
correspondent dan springer is in seattle tonight. a recent fentanyl overdose on the streets of seattle, and another life lost to an epidemic that is now killing far more americans than covid. seattle s averaging more than 25 drug overdose deaths a week. a 0% increase over last year, which set a record. san francisco is even worse, it s had 1,000 more overdose deaths and covid fatalities in a three years since the coronavirus pandemic hit. it s all driven by fentanyl. it s just unprecedented in terms of the nature of a drug. something that is so strong, so cheap, so addictive and so lethal. cdcens numbers only go through 2021 but the trend is clear. overdose deaths more than 500 percent higher than two decades ago. since 2015 when the drug cartels ramped up trafficking to synthetic opioid fentanyl into the u.s. the death toll has exploded. we have a much more permissive attitude in our culture today that says that drug use is acceptable and if