[20191203]LSB10379_烟草、类阿片和全球解决方案：国会考虑事项.pdf

CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Tobacco, Opioids, and Global Settlements: Considerations for Congress December 3, 2019 A recent Sidebar provided an overview of the sprawling state and local government opioid litigation pending in state and federal courts and highlighted a number of global settlement proposals that would settle claims across both litigation tracks against certain defendants. Commentators have often compared the opioid litigation and the prospect of a global settlement of the state and local government opioid cases to the tobacco litigation in the 1990s and the resulting 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). The 1998 MSA between 46 state attorneys generals and four of the nations largest tobacco manufacturers remains the largest civil litigation settlement in U.S. history, requiring the tobacco manufacturers to pay approximately $206 billion over the first 25 years of the agreement and to agree to certain practice changes. The nature and magnitude of the MSA also prompted congressional involvement in its negotiation and implementation. In light of the comparison commentators have drawn between the opio