[cafman]

It's not bizarre at all. A guy behind a computer or a guy leading a company can do so much more damage than any murderer. The "guy behind the computer" didn't hack up and at people but ruined the lives and many people, and their families. You might argue that everyone on silk road is a little guilty and that's probably true but he facilitated the ruining of lives of many spouses and children who did nothing wrong.

[lprubin]

If you're arguing that silk road's drug sales ruined lives, I'll posit a counter-argument that silk road may have saved lives. People who are drug addicts are going to find their drugs one way or another. I highly doubt there were many people who got their drugs on silk road that wouldn't have gotten them somewhere else.

And instead of purchasing them on the street from dubious sources where the drugs may have been cut or mixed or mis-measured or not even actually what they claimed to be, these people were able to purchase them from sellers who had been peer reviewed thousands of times. Not an ideal situation, but often far safer than purchasing from random people on the street.

In my opinion, the solution to drug addiction problems is not prohibition. That's what we have now and it's not working.

[pazimzadeh]

The silk road provided a place for anonymous discussion and review of goods. It provided access to transcendent experiences. I'd say it saved lives.

[corobo]

> People who are drug addicts

As an anecdata piece I know a guy who had nothing to do with drugs until he was able to get some easily and with less risk from Silk Road. Not every buyer was already an addict.

[Belphemur]

Drug was only one of the item on sale.

You had also assassination, children, organs, human trafficking, and more that I can't remember.

I agree with you on the point of the drug, but the rest... Is disgusting.

[lprubin]

I completely agree that the sale of assassination, children, organs, human trafficking are deplorable and thats definitely regrettable if those things showed up on the silk road with consistency and were allowed to remain.

But I was under the impression that ross ulbricht was being convicted mainly for drug trafficking and wasn't charged for any of those other things.

[cafman]

I'm sympathetic to the damage done by the "war on drugs". We need to change laws, creating a website that allows for murder and other horrible crimes is not the right approach.

[homero]

I don't think the silk road had those, those were other sites afaik

[micaksica]

The "think of the children!" appeal to emotion doesn't usually garner sympathy here.

I strongly disagree with your statement and where you're placing blame for the issues of peoples' lives being ruined. Drug users are the ones ruining their lives and their families if they have them with their addictions. They are consuming them, whether the "choice" of consumption is theirs anymore is anyone's guess, but the choice to not so much as attempt be clean is. There are support groups, harm reduction strategies, and rehabilitation avenues for most users of physically addictive substances.

Do you believe life imprisonment is the correct answer for every bar and liquor store owner in the world, or every pain management MD that is overprescribing Oxycontin? At the worst, Ulbricht has no worse social effect than these people.

I say this as someone whose own life has been "ruined" by addicts, has had my own issues, and who has seen my families' lives ruined by them the same. It is not the fault of the supplier. It is the fault of the user.

[nxtrafalgar]

>Do you believe life imprisonment is the correct answer for every bar and liquor store owner in the world, or every pain management MD that is overprescribing Oxycontin? At the worst, Ulbricht has no worse social effect than these people.

There's a substantial difference between social drinking or overprescription and facilitating the large-scale sale of hard drugs.

[micaksica]

> There's a substantial difference between social drinking or overprescription

We're talking about lives being ruined. I know many alcoholics that are "social drinking", every day, to the detriment of their own careers and family lives, being run through the court system DUI after DUI. I also know many who, after a back injury, are still on Oxy years later, just finding new doctors that will re-prescribe them Oxy again. I know people whose teenage children then started stealing and taking the Oxycodone from their parents' supply. I have a friend currently sitting in prison for opiate-based drug offenses as well -- much to the detriment of his immediate family.

These situations were facilitated by these very institutions. Alcohol distributors may be the kingpins and bars the corner dealers, pharma companies the kingpins and MDs the dealers. SR was a proxy and gateway to substances that in some cases are far less dangerous than the ones our own country seems completely OK with.

These are consumption-side issues, as you seem to agree with -- I am drinking a glass of wine right now, not four bottles. The same can be said about a lot of potentially socially destructive substances that were available on SR, and other illegal-in-many-states substances such as marijuana are generally accepted as virtually harmless in comparison to oxy or alcohol.

[nxtrafalgar]

So I agree there are substantial harms from alcohol, but the context of alcohol sales is still different. It occurs in a regulated market with oversight, safety standards, etc. Now perhaps the market for, say, heroin should be legal and regulated, in order to reduce social harm, but it currently isn't.

That means by facilitating the distribution of a drug, you are propping up an illegal industry, perhaps run by organized crime and so on.

I don't disagree that there is an element of regulatory / governmental failure here, but to suggest that these activities are equivalent strikes me as a stretch.

[darawk]

No, there absolutely isn't. Huge numbers of people have their lives ruined by alcoholism. It is exactly, precisely morally equivalent to hard drug sales. There is no difference. I say this as a former hard drug addict.

[cafman]

Not at all. People should receive treatment instead of mandatory minimums, but we are a country of laws. Change the laws. Putting up a website that operates like the wild west where anything goes is not conducive for a stable society. Classifying my comment as a "think of the children" is not exactly fair discourse. I'm being fair to your comments, maybe be fair to mine. Families are sometimes affected and it's reasonable to think of them. Families are part of society and families contribute to the stability of society.