BTW, Sadler was the biggest cocaine and heroin seller on Silk Road and yes, got 5 years. Not to mention that Blake Benthall, who admitted to running Silk Road 2.0 (which sold 4x as many drugs per month as Silk Road) was released in 2014 and is a free man. I believe it is because Ross is a political prisoner. The judge said as much at sentencing when she said it was clear he created the site based on a philosophy and she wasn't sure he had given that philosophy up. I think an alternative currency (bitcoin) and privacy (tor) were the real concern. The prosecutors said Ross was the first to "use the internet in this way" and must be punished for that. I think the other Silk Road sentences demonstrate that it was not about drugs. And your points about unequal treatment under the law are exactly right. I have many more examples.