The roughly 2,000 state and local governments suing the drug industry over the deadly opioid crisis have yet to see any verdicts or reach any big national settlements, although they are already tussling with each other over how to divide any money they collect.
The reason: Some of them want to avoid what happened 20 years ago when states agreed to a giant settlement with the tobacco industry and used most of the cash on projects that had little to do with smoking’s toll.
