‘Everyone Has a Why’

MOSES LAKE — The reasons for addiction are many, but everybody has one. That’s the point of a campaign by the Grant County Health District to highlight opioid addiction and overdoses. It’s part of a two-phase campaign to explain some of the reasons behind addiction, and encourage people to seek help.

“It can be loss, or pain, or struggle, but everyone has a reason that they may start using substances,” said Lexi Smith, communications coordinator for the Grant County Health District. “But on the flip side of that, everyone has a reason that they don’t, or that they choose to help someone who does.”

The tagline for the Everybody Has a Why campaign is “Make addiction a conversation, not a secret,” and removing the shame of seeking help is a primary aim.

“A big part of the campaign is about stigma reduction,” Smith said. “Trying to tell people that it’s OK to seek help, and that almost all of us have been touched by substance use in some way. We all have our own opinions and thoughts about it, but we can be the helping hand that can get the person in our lives to get help. Instead of meeting them with judgment, we can meet them with support.”

The problem is not a small one. In Grant County, there were 19 deaths from opioid overdoses from 2016 to 2018, according to the GCHD. For the years 2021-2023, the latest for which data was available, that figure had more than tripled to 63 deaths.

One bright spot on the horizon is the increase in the use of Naloxone, the drug that can reverse opioid overdoses. The GCHD has a program to supply Naloxone, also called Narcan, free at three kiosks in Grant County, and plans are underway to add more. Between 2018 and 2023, the Narcan program saved 254 lives, Smith said.

“That’s only through that program,” she said. “That’s not counting the doses of Narcan that have been administered that we don’t know about.”

The GCHD’s website devoted to the campaign, everyonehasawhy.org, includes instructions for administering Narcan, as well as where to find it. There are also resources for children and teens to get a conversation started about addiction.

“It’s never too late,” a recovering addict identified only as Jose said in a video on the website. “I … really had that belief that I was going to die a drug addict, alone, that nobody cared about me. That’s not how my story ends.”

The Everyone has a Why campaign runs through Sept. 30, with a focus on International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31, according to a press release from the GCHD.

“The Everyone Has A Why campaign shares real stories from members of our community,” Mariah Deleon, GCHD’s harm reduction coordinator, wrote in the release. “These stories highlight the power of human connection and the importance of meeting your loved ones and community members where they are.”

More information can be found at everyonehasawhy.org.