In addition to many other things he has promised to do on his first day in office, Donald Trump has said he will free Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who is serving a life sentence in federal prison for connecting drug consumers with drug sellers. From a libertarian perspective, it is obvious that no one should go to prison for facilitating peaceful transactions among consenting adults. But Ulbricht's grossly disproportionate punishment should give pause even to supporters of the war on drugs.
Two weeks before Ulbricht was sentenced, his lawyer sought to dispel the notion that his website, which enabled people around the world to anonymously buy politically disfavored intoxicants with bitcoin via the Tor network, was "a more dangerous version of a traditional drug marketplace." To the contrary, defense attorney Joshua Dratel said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest, Silk Road "was in many respects the most responsible such marketplace in history."
