I do enjoy intellectual discussions with smart people on thought provoking topics and that's primarily what this is. I am genuinely curious if my idea could work and I was interested in feedback from the HN crowd. I've been mostly lurking here for about 10 years, and just recently decided to start writing more and trying to participate more actively in HN discussions. This idea struck me as something that could spark a fun discussion, and it has.

Getting something to the front page of Hacker News is a bucket list item for me. It didn't happen this time (I think it got to page 4), but I learned a lot and really enjoyed replying to everyone's comments.

But to be clear, this was not a stunt. It was meant to be a little provocative and attention grabbing, but I do genuinely believe my idea has some merit and might improve a very difficult situation... if it could be done legally and safely.

Many successful startup ideas do sound very ill-conceived initially and often have legal problems, despite their success. Having strangers drive you places? Renting a room in a random person's house? Having a book retailer host all your IT infrastructure? So, although I do appreciate your point, I don't think those factors alone are reason enough to give up on the concept.

Improving drug cartel profit margins is not a direct goal. Reducing deaths and violence is the goal, but I don't see a way to do that without getting the cartels to change how they operate a bit. The only way I can think of to get them to want to change is with economic incentives. They seem to not respond to other types of incentives/punishments. If you have thoughts on what might motivate them other than profits, I'd love to hear it.

No, I have no interest in making money from this idea or sharing profits with the cartels. Doing so would obviously be illegal and I'm only looking for legal pathways to achieve my goals.

No, I wouldn't describe it as "growth hacking". I'm not interested in growing their businesses, just exploring creative options that might reduce the death/violence. I'm speaking here in a purely personal capacity. My employer has not endorsed anything I'm discussing, nor would I ask/expect them to. I recognize that there is a possibility of some negative blowback from this post. If they asked me to, I would be happy to delete it. It's certainly not my intent to embarrass anyone or create negative associations with my employer. My hope is that if my company's leadership does come across the post, they would recognize that there was good intent behind it and don't feel the need to cut ties with me to avoid repetitional damage over a fairly abstract/hypothetical discussion on a forum where users compete to gain the attention of other people in the community. It is nuanced and not without some professional risk, but I'm pretty sure my employer would give me a chance to fix things if they felt there was a problem.

Your question about the mods is a little too leading/loaded for me to simply confirm or deny. All I will say is that the post was flagged last night, I emailed the moderation team, Dang emailed me back and unflagged the post. If Dang is ok with it, I'd be happy to post his email here, but I don't want to assume that he would want comments he made privately to be shared publicly.

Test strips aren't the only option that I'm investigating. I know there are some facilities that will do lab tests to check for fentanyl and other dangerous additives. That might end up being a better approach.

I have family and friends with pharmaceutical industry, chemistry, and medical/healthcare backgrounds that I've reached out to for advice on the issue, especially the question of weather it's possible to safely use the test strips with a low risk of some kind of exposure.

And on your other point, there would be hardware and software involved, but the cartels wouldn't be interacting with them directly. I'll be sure to have the cartels sign my EULA before proceeding with anything.