Communities Attempt to Solve Opioid Crisis by Suing Big Pharma

Lawsuit smackdown: Big Pharma is getting slammed with lawsuits for creating super addictive painkillers that are jacking up the opioid crisis in America to unprecedented levels. According to The Washington Post, at least 25 states, cities and counties have filed civil cases against manufacturers, distributors and large drugstore chains all within the past year. The legal battle is just one of the ways communities are trying to figure out how to fix prescription drug abuse which has reached epidemic levels.

Sick of this yet? The GOP Senators intent on repealing Obamacare, and by extension Medicaid, are putting the jobs of hundreds of thousands of workers in the healthcare industry in jeopardy. This blows. Republican Senator Ted Cruz tried to tweak the bill by adding an amendment, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act, which would eliminate money for low-income families who are covered under Medicaid expansion. The healthcare system impacts employees as well as the people getting care, and the Senate's repeal and replacement will have a domino effect on the industry.

California screws up: The state of California has been trying to pass a single-payer healthcare bill, which basically means they want the state to cover healthcare for all people no matter their age, pre-existing conditions or income. This is huge. The State Senate passed a single-payer bill and it was left up to the State Assembly to seal the deal, but in the final hour Democrat Speaker Anthony Rendon shut the legislation down.

Although Rendon says he supports a single-payer system, he called the bill "woefully incomplete." California residents aren't here for Rendon's excuses and people are mad as hell, rightfully so. Universal coverage under a single-payer system funded by tax dollars would actually save people money. In the meantime, whether or not California will be able to get its act together remains to be seen.

Things are getting worse: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been consolidating power throughout the country and transforming his nation into more of a dictatorship than a democracy. Things have escalated quickly with anti-Maduro activists clashing with the military in protests and bombing the Venezuelan Supreme Court building. Now, government supporters are fighting fire with fire. An angry mob attacked lawmakers who oppose Maduro in a government building. The state of unrest continues to peak and the future of the country is uncertain.

Watch more video from VICE:

No so subtle shade: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is in Germany protesting the G20 Summit where President Trump is meeting with Russian President and BFF Vladimir Putin and other world leaders. This year's G20 city of Hamburg has become a hotbed of political unrest as a ton of protests have been planned around the summit.

Things started with a smash on Thursday when an anti-capitalist demonstration called "Welcome to Hell" turned into a brawl between protesters and police. On Saturday, de Blasio will be the keynote speaker at the Hamburg Shows Attitude event. Given his platform of progressive politics, his message will offer some pushback to Trump's presence in the country.

Make our planet great again: France has announced potential plans to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040. The statement came from France's new Minister of Ecological and Social Transition, Nicolas Hulot, who said the move is aimed at "forcing [France] to make necessary environmental investments." If the plan goes into effect, French citizens will be offered financial incentives to get rid of old vehicles and replace them with eco-friendly alternatives.

War on media continues: Maine Governor Paul LePage suggested that he feeds fake stories to the news media in an interview last Thursday. LePage told a local radio station, "I just love to sit in my office and make up ways so they'll write these stupid stories because they are just so stupid, it's awful."

He went on to call the news media "vile, inaccurate, and useless." LePage's heated attack on the media came after reports that he planned to leave Maine during a government shutdown. LePage's comments are yet another gut punch to the first amendment, as Trump emboldens his peers to attack the press.