‘Everyone Has a Why’
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 1 month AGO
Jose, a recovering opioid addict, is one of the spokespersons in a campaign by the Grant County Health District to reduce the stigma of seeking help for addiction.
COURTESY PHOTO/GRANT COUNTY HEALTH DISTRICT
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | July 24, 2025 1:00 AM
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.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
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Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.