What would you say to a man who reduced drug violence?

This post was written by SFL Communications Associate Daniel Pryor and first published on Medium.

What would you say to a man who reduced drug violence? A man who clicked his fingers and prevented numerous robberies, murders, and assaults.

What would you say to a man who made drugs immeasurably safer? A man who clicked his fingers and spared thousands from fear, injury, or even death due to contaminated or incorrectly measured drugs.

What would you say to a man who prioritized integrity, reducing suffering, and the principle of human freedom? A man who chose to oppose coercion rather than live the life of the 1%.

Such a man exists today. He clicked his fingers — on a keyboard — and started a project that had begun to reduce drug violence, make drugs safer, and fight the systemic use of coercion by operating outside the vicious current paradigm known as the War on Drugs.

The US government told him to rot. The US government smeared him as a murderer before dropping such charges. The US government told him to slowly die a miserable death in a tiny, grey, hellish room.

The man I am talking about is Ross Ulbricht, who allegedly went by the alias of “Dread Pirate Roberts” and helped run the anonymous online marketplace “Silk Road” before it was shut down by the government.

What would you say to him? I would thank him. I would tell him that he is an inspiration to all those who fight for the principles of a free society. And above all, I would say this — #FreeRoss.

On September 27th, at 8:00 PM EST, Students For Liberty is teaming up with Young Americans for Liberty and Students for Sensible Drug Policy to bring you the Campus Debut of Deep Web. The movie tells the story of Ross Ulbricht’s efforts to create the “Silk Road” online market, which ended with his 2013 arrest.