Larry Dighera wrote:
Let me see if I've got this right. It's okay to carry sick or injured
passengers without the pilot meeting the drug testing and minimum
hours requirements. But those conducting short sightseeing flights
are no longer able to get a waiver for drug testing, and must now have
500 hours instead of the former 200 hour minimum. So the public at
large is better protected, but the sick and injured are not?

You could read it that way.

Applying a risk management viewpoint, another reading
might be that all sightseeing trips are frivolous and
unnecessary and as-such the pilot and passengers can
bear a greater burden of compliance or simply not fly.

OTOH, the non-availability of a medical flight might
have a very large negative consequences outweighing the
tiny risk of a drug-impaired pilot.

Wow, I just thought like a bureaucrat. I think I need
to go read a technical manual for awhile....