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Comment by ceejayoz | Hacker News Reader

Sting operations are not entrapment.

Entrapment requires coercion by the police to push you into something you wouldn't have otherwise done.

Selling drugs to an undercover cop? Not entrapment.

Selling drugs to an undercover cop because they said they'd kill your family if you don't get them some drugs? Entrapment.

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There have been "sting operations" where cops offered somebody a ridiculous low price on some drugs, then busted them for going for it. Easy to get caught trafficking several kilos of coke when you paid $100 a kilo. Sounds like entrapment to me though.

That's not entrapment, at least not in the USA. A normal law abiding person doesn't deal cocaine even if it's really cheap.

A normal wealthy person, maybe. To many people, an offer like that is a ticket out of poverty.

So's stealing an unattended bag of money off the back of an armored truck. Still criminal; still not a coerced act.

I mean, if I'm a regular user and I can afford and obtain a big supply for 1/10th the going rate I'd seriously consider that, even without an interest for selling it on. This would be true of any shelf stable product I use regularly and could effectively store

"Regular cocaine user" and "law abiding citizen" are in conflict. A cheap price isn't coercion.

Oh I know, I'm not arguing it is coercion.I'm arguing that it indicates an attempt to distribute is tenuous

by "wonder" i mean what actually happened, not what the prosecutor's narrative is. the agents were aggressive in taking down SR and making an example of it even before knowing anything of its operations. did agents approach ulbricht and offer to make his problems go away for a price? did they lead him to believe it was a neccessity for his own safety? etc. we may never know because ulbricht was not actually tried for these crimes.

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