View: https://twitter.com/reason/status/1341890077534932993?s=20
The case for commuting Ulbricht's sentence is simple: He never directly harmed anyone, and his sentence was wildly disproportionate to the severity of the crimes for which he was convicted.
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In a December column reacting to the news that Trump is considering clemency for Ulbricht, Bilton argued that the Silk Road "caused irreparable harm to others," citing the six people who allegedly "died from drugs they had purchased on the Silk Road, including a teenager in Australia, who had had an adverse reaction to a hallucinogen and had jumped out of a hotel window."
Those deaths were tragic and heartbreaking, and jurors were right to be moved—but the real culprit is the drug war itself, because that's what drove the narcotics trade underground in the first place. That's why there are no reputable brands, or quality control in heroin, LSD, or MDMA, so users have no choice but to take dealers at their word. The Silk Road was an attempt, albeit imperfect, to correct for the lack of information in drug markets, which is why on net it probably saved lives.
A 2013 study in the International Journal of Drug Policy found that users flocked to the Silk Road out of concern "for street drug quality and personal safety" and that "vendor selection appeared to be based on trust, speed of transaction, stealth modes and quality of product."
Several users on the site's forums regularly answered questions about drug safety and what to do in the case of an overdose.
The Silk Road made buying drugs "too easy," according to a mother whose son struggled with addiction before dying of an overdose. But shutting down Silk Road didn't make drugs less readily available—it only pushed sales onto less trustworthy online platforms or back onto the streets.
Source: Why President Trump Should Free Ross Ulbricht
