Enacts new Article 7, Legislative Release to Protect National Opioid Settlement Payments, in GS Chapter 122C. Sets out and defines terms as they are used in the act, including initial opioid consent judgments and subsequent opioid settlement agreements. Sets out 11 NCGA findings related to the opioid epidemic, related litigation, the State's share of the Initial Opioid Consent Judgments, and the Subsequent Opioid Settlement Agreements. 

States that the intent of the Article is to prevent the assertion of Initial Released Claims and Subsequent Released Claims against Initial Released Entities and Subsequent Released Entities by the State (as defined) and its Units of Local Government (as defined), and to thereby help secure the full share to which the State, its Units of Local Government, and its people are otherwise entitled under the Initial Opioid Consent Judgments and the Subsequent Opioid Settlement Agreements.

New GS 122C-470.8 prohibits a Unit of Local Government and the State from asserting any Initial Released Claims against Initial Released Entities, or any Subsequent Released Claims against Subsequent Released Entities. Allows the State, as expressly contemplated in the Subsequent Opioid Settlement Agreements, to initiate civil actions asserting Subsequent Released Claims against Subsequent Released Entities for the purpose of obtaining consent judgments that effectuate the Subsequent Opioid Settlement Agreements, including the release of such claims. Specifies that this statute applies to all Initial Released Claims, whether originally asserted before or after the act's effective date. Specifies that this statute applies to all Subsequent Released Claims, whether originally asserted before or after the effective date of this act, except that it does not apply to Subsequent Released Claims against Subsequent Released Entities that were included in any lawsuits filed by a Unit of Local Government before November 1, 2022. If the Subsequent Opioid Settlement Agreements with respect to all of the Subsequent Settling Opioid Defendants are not entered as consent judgments by the Superior Court of Wake County by December 31, 2023, then, beginning on January 1, 2024, this statute only applies to Subsequent Released Claims against Subsequent Released Entities covered by a consent judgment approved by a North Carolina court of competent jurisdiction.

Specifies that this Article preserves all remedies the State or any Unit of Local Government may have under the Initial Opioid Consent Judgments and Subsequent Opioid Settlement Agreements. Provides that this Article does not limit or otherwise affect such remedies.