Florida's sheriffs — including Pinellas County's Bob Gualtieri — announced on Tuesday that they oppose a medical marijuana bill being pushed by a leading Republican lawmaker.

The Florida Sheriff's Association voted 38-2 to oppose the legislation, which would allow state-regulated dispensaries for patients with a wide variety of conditions.

The sheriffs also released "core legislative principles" that any Florida medical pot bill must follow to garner their support. Those included disallowing general pain as a qualifying diagnosis, as well as smoked marijuana — both allowed under Senate Bill 528 filed by Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican.

Gualtieri, a Republican and the association's legislative chair, said the sheriffs would work with Brandes and other legislators to try to craft a medical marijuana bill that conformed to the core principles. But the Brandes proposal contained "loose language," he told reporters at a Tallahassee news conference.

"You don't smoke medicine," Gualtieri said.

Gualtieri told the Tampa Bay Times last week that he had scanned the 28-page Brandes bill and supported it, except for its smokable pot provision.

On Tuesday, he said he had dug deeper and found too many problems, like muscle spasms as a qualifying diagnosis.

"After reading it in its entirety, I see some things that are in the right direction," Gualtieri said, "but the devil is in the details."

Brandes said that the sheriffs had some "excellent ideas and I look forward to working with them," but that he did not intend to change provisions on pain or smoking.

"It's my position to let physicians make medical decisions," Brandes said. "To my knowledge, none of the sheriffs went to medical school. I don't know another medication where we determine how that medicine can be prescribed."

A constitutional amendment to allow medical marijuana gained 58 percent of the vote last year, just shy of passing. Its sponsor, United for Care, has launched a new amendment campaign for 2016. Opponents are now under pressure to fashion a system for allowing some form of medical marijuana by statute.

"This is now in the proper forum and proper venue for dialogue and debate," Gualtieri said, "where Amendment 2 wasn't before and should not be in 2016."

Ben Pollara, United for Care's executive director, remained diplomatic.

"While, obviously, we would have liked the full support of the FSA," Pollara said, "we are encouraged by their willingness to engage in a productive dialogue about what a responsible, comprehensive medical marijuana law in Florida should look like."

One "core principle" endorsed by the sheriffs is limiting usage to terminally ill patients and those with specific diseases such as cancer, AIDS and epilepsy.

"A patient must not receive medical marijuana for general 'pain' because pain is not a disease," the principles said.

Medical marijuana states typically qualify patients who suffer from "chronic" or "severe" pain. More than 90 percent of patients in some states qualify through a chronic or severe pain diagnosis.

Some people with back, neck and other types of chronic pain respond poorly to narcotic painkillers. On the other hand, critics of such provisions note, pain can be faked.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report. Contact Stephen Nohlgren at nohlgren@tampabay.com.