Walmart Kroger AmerisourceBergen Cardinal Health Mckesson.
How I became a civil rights activist: DeRay Mckesson talks protesting, pursuing justice.
Mckesson: I think that what we all did in the street in St. Louis(in 2014-16).
Interestingly, the three largest drug distributors- Cardinal Health,
Amerisource Bergen and Mckesson Corp. are remaining defendants, as is Walgreen's.
Mckesson: I used to teach sixth-grade math,
and(teaching kids) was by far the most incredible thing I have ever done.
Mckesson: My peers in protest,
because we have all really pushed each other to be honest and fervent about change.
USA TODAY caught up with Mckesson to talk about everything from his time as a teacher to the lessons that he has learned in the
2014 Occupy SLU protest.
Mckesson: I spend a lot of time either supporting organizers with data-
we made Campaign Zero about ending police violence- or attending a lot of meetings, trying to peel back layers we might have never thought about.
The companies involved- from drug distributors and retail outlets like Mckesson and Walgreens to manufacturers like Johnson & Johnson-
are making billions in revenue off the opioid crisis, and worse, they have spent more than $100 million lobbying Congress to insure that crisis only deepens, and their profits increase.