Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.08.2016, Síða 8

The villain of the issue this issue is
election season. Every time there’s an
election, you’ll find the same group of
people scolding everyone else about
how this is “your one chance every four
years to make a difference,” which is
both condescending and untrue. First,
because organised demonstrations call-
ing for early elections shortened that
waiting period, and second, because as
Emma Goldman once said, “If elections
changed anything they’d make them
illegal.” Your “chance to make a differ-
ence” happens every single day, with
opportunities for democratic participa-
tion that have little to do with casting
your ballot for which personalities you
want to see maintain the status quo.
Elections are a sham, a distraction from
actual democratic participation, serving
no one but the power-hungry, and it’s for
this reason that election season is this
issue’s villain of the issue.
The hero of the issue this issue is elec-
tion season. This year we have been
blessed with early elections, tentatively
to be held on October 29, months ahead
of the previously scheduled date in May
2017. This means that those of us who or-
ganised, demonstrated, and demanded
new elections have been heard—sorta.
We might not have gotten everything we
wanted, but public pressure did at least
get us this far. Plus, for those of us in the
reporting business, we no longer have to
suffer through the dreaded “cucumber
season,” when news stories all but dis-
appear for the summer, because parties
are already having their primaries and
have started campaigning. As such, the
circus has begun, and should prove end-
lessly entertaining. A democratic man-
date achieved, and the gap in the news
filled—what a perfect candidate for this
issue’s hero of the issue.
HERO OF
THE ISSUE
VILLAIN OF
THE ISSUEElection
Season
Election
Season
DV / Sigtryggur AriDV / Sigtryggur Ari
Fentanyl:
Don’t Fuck
With That
Shit°
Last weekend, some sad news came
to light that brought back some bad
memories for me, and shock and grief
to a lot of other people. Namely, a young
man passed away from taking Fentan-
yl, a powerful hospital-grade opiate. In
fact, the deaths of two people this year
can be tied to the drug, and about two
dozen deaths are now being investi-
gated in connection with it.
As a lot of you know, I originally hail
from Baltimore. There’s a lot of good
things about my hometown, but its ap-
petite for opiates is not one of them.
Heroin is widespread, and every year
there would be an outbreak of “China
White,” the colloquial and confusing
media name given to Fentanyl. The
bodies would pile up, with anywhere
from a handful to dozens of deaths re-
ported. Fentanyl being about 50 times
more powerful than heroin, even sea-
soned addicts would drop like flies.
I won’t bore you with my own per-
sonal horror stories with opiate addic-
tion. You’ve heard them from others a
million times over. And if you’ve dab-
bled in harder drugs and discovered
that, despite the warnings of state-
funded PSAs, you did not actually be-
come instantly hooked or die immedi-
ately from taking a bump of meth or a
hit off a base pipe, then you probably
think the warnings about Fentanyl
must be blown out of proportion, too.
They aren’t. Fentanyl is bullshit.
Don’t fuck with that shit.
This isn’t some kind of moral-
panic junky’s lamentation I’m giving
you here. As someone who struggled
with and eventually overcame opiate
addiction myself, I can assure you,
from firsthand experience within that
world, that Fentanyl is not something
you want to fuck with. I’ve known peo-
ple who had been regular heroin users
most of their adult lives, folks who had
the tolerance of a rampaging elephant,
who ended up just as dead from Fen-
tanyl as any young person just looking
to have some recreational fun. Addic-
tion is the least of your worries when it
comes to Fentanyl.
One of the more insidious things
about Fentanyl is the fact that it car-
ries with it the aura of safety, being a
professionally produced pharmaceuti-
cal. This gives the impression that it
must be safe and free of impurities.
The thing is, though, is that Fentanyl
is administered under the strict su-
pervision of a medical professional.
Some guy who has some Fentanyl
patches or a Fentanyl lollipop is not a
medical professional. Not having to
worry about impurities in your Fen-
tanyl is like not having to worry about
trans fats in the gun being aimed at
your head.
Seeing the news of this young
man’s death made me profoundly
sad. It made me think of the people
I once knew back home, people who
left this world all too soon, leaving in
their wake a tearing wound across the
hearts of friends and family that will
never completely heal. It fills me with
dread to consider that it is all too pos-
sible Fentanyl will gain any kind of
foothold in Iceland.
So if you never heed any words I say
about anything else I write, please be-
lieve me when I say to you: don’t fuck
with that shit.
“I can assure you,
from firsthand
experience within
that world, that
fentanyl is not
something you
want to fuck with.”
OPINION
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13 — 2016
8
Words
PAUL
FONTAINE
Photo
WIKIMEDIA
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GV.IS/CREA
One of the bigger sto-
ries to make head-
lines over the past
week or so was a dem-
onstration by the Icelandic National
Front (INF), a group that swears they
are totally not racist, while pushing
for closing the borders and institut-
ing a number of policies that would
be aimed at Muslims. About 30 of
them held their demonstration at
Parliament, but they weren’t alone.
There were easily four times as many
counter-demonstrators who showed
up to voice their support for asylum
seekers. The INF are a hearty bunch,
undeterred by things like “facts” and
“information”—even when it was
pointed out that their objections to
Iceland’s immigration laws do not re-
flect anything that can be found any-
where in the law itself, they were de-
cidedly unswayed. We look forward to
hearing their platform regarding stray
unicorns and winged polar bears.
One of our most popular news sto-
ries these past couple weeks has been
the news that tourists are getting
seriously ripped off when it comes
to renting rooms and apartments. In
some cases, tourists are charged for
a single night in a room what most
Icelanders would pay for a month’s
rent of a small apartment. This has
had an inevitable ripple effect on the
rest of the rental market, as locals
are finding it increasingly difficult
to find affordable housing. As a re-
sult, some downtown playschools
have had to reduce their staff due to
the lack of families living downtown.
If the trend continues, downtown
Reykjavík will be pretty much one big
AirBnB, and those of us who live here
will have to move to Kópavogur or
something. Pray for us.
NEWS IN
BRIEF
Bjarni's favorite
lighthouse is
Reykjanesviti
Sigmundur likes
many lighthouses,
one in every electoral
district at least