Gov. Ron DeSantis called on the Florida Legislature to repeal a ban on smoking medical marijuana and also make it easier for businesses to participate in the market, warning that if lawmakers do not act he will cease to defend provisions of a medical marijuana law that have been challenged in court.

DeSantis accused the GOP-controlled Legislature of failing to follow the will of Florida voters, who overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state constitution in 2016 that legalized medical marijuana.

“When over 70 percent of Florida voters vote in favor of medical use of marijuana for people with really serious, debilitating conditions that is about as big a majority as you can get in this day and age,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Winter Park. “And it’s my judgment that what the Florida Legislature has done to implement the people’s will has not done it in accordance with what the amendment envisioned.

“Whether they have to smoke it or not who am I to judge that?” DeSantis added. “I want people to be able to have their suffering relieved, and so I don’t think this law is up to snuff.”

In 2017 the Legislature passed an implementing bill that established the framework for Florida’s medical marijuana industry. That bill banned the sale of the drug in smokable forms. It also created a licensing system for medical marijuana businesses that has been criticized as too restrictive.

Those two provisions of the law have been successfully challenged in court and the state currently is appealing the court decisions. DeSantis threatened to drop the appeal in the medical marijuana smoking ban case if lawmakers fail to act.

The governor set a deadline of mid-March for lawmakers to introduce a bill that would ease the ban on smoking medical marijuana, saying he will ask the court for a “stay of decision” on the state’s appeal until then. Florida’s two-month legislative session begins March 5.

“We’ll give them a couple weeks in session to address the smoking issue, and if they don’t do it we’re gonna dismiss the case and we’re gonna move on,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis also took aim at the licensing system that the Legislature created for medical marijuana businesses, which he described as creating a “cartel.” The governor indicated that if the Legislature does not act, he also may end the state’s appeal of a successful lawsuit challenging the licensing system.

“Look, we’ve got a lot of fish to fry in Florida,” DeSantis said. “The last thing I want to be doing is cleaning up for something that should’ve happened two years ago… I don’t want to continue fighting some of these old battles.”

Florida’s medical marijuana law caps the number of marijuana business licenses and requires vertical integration, which means that every medical marijuana company must manufacture and sell its own products. DeSantis says he prefers horizontal integration, which would allow medical marijuana companies to specialize in certain aspects of the business. He said the current system does not adhere to “free market principles” and should be “opened up.”

“I don’t know that the amendment necessarily prohibits that,” DeSantis said of the current licensing system. “But that is not good policy so I'd like them to address that as well. Both leaders of the Legislature say they’re gonna do it but, you know, if they don't we have the ability to dismiss this lawsuit as the Sword of Damocles hanging over their head.”

State Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said Thursday that “we will certainly honor the governor’s request to bring a bill forward early in session that addresses both his concerns and those raised in litigation.”

Galvano added that “many senators share these concerns and have ideas they are interested in advancing, which include smokable forms of treatment.”

House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami, also pledged to “bring a bill to the floor early in session” on the marijuana issue.

“The House will work with the Governor on his priorities,” Oliva said in a statement. “Including ensuring patients have options and our kids remain protected.”

DeSantis was joined at his press conference by John Morgan, an Orlando trial attorney who spearheaded the medical marijuana constitutional amendment and filed the lawsuit challenging the smoking ban.

“Since this governor was elected I have been incredibly encouraged,” Morgan said, adding: “He’s read the constitutional amendment. He’s listened to the will of the people — 71 percent — and the comments he’s made have been so encouraging to me — that the people’s will should be the most important.”

One of the plaintiffs in Morgan's case is Manatee County resident Cathy Jordan, who has smoked marijuana for decades to ease the symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Jordan believes that smoking marijuana is a more effective way of treating her disease. She has been lobbying in favor of medical marijuana for many years.

DeSantis repeatedly mentioned ALS patients Thursday in arguing the Legislature must go further to ensure that Florida’s medical marijuana system is helping severely ill people.