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Medical marijuana has been legal in Florida for nearly two years, but patient access is still limited and smokable marijuana is still banned.

However, that may change when Governor-elect Ron DeSantis takes office.

There are now more than 165,000 active medical marijuana patients in Florida, but industry insiders like Jeff Sharkey with the Medical Marijuana Business Association say access is still an issue.

“I mean the pricing is starting to affect people,” said Sharkey.

The state is appealing a ruling that declared the current medical marijuana law unconstitutional, because it limits the number of growers licenses and requires businesses to follow a seed to sale model.

Recent comments made by the Lieutenant Governor-elect Jeanette Nunez suggest incoming Governor Ron DeSantis may drop the appeal when he takes office.

“It would certainly open up to a lot of other people who may want to be just distributors or processors, rather than being the one licensee who has to do it all,” said Sharkey.

When we spoke to DeSantis in October he said he wanted fully implement the constitutional amendment passed by 71% of voters.

“The people have spoken and so I will implement that. I mean we’re not going to dilly dally anymore,” said DeSantis. “That will be implemented if I’m Governor.”

As for any hopes of recreational marijuana, DeSantis made it clear he does not support full legalization.

“I don’t think that that’s good for children. I don’t think that’s good for public safety,” said DeSantis.

But DeSantis may be willing to open up new forms of cannabis to patients.

Attorney John Morgan, who is suing the state to allow smokable medical cannabis Tweeted last week that he expects DeSantis to drop the state’s appeal in that case as well, saying, “More good news on the frontlines. Our new @GovRonDeSantis will drop the #MedicalMarijuana appeal and allow smoke I hear.”

The No Smoke is a Joke case as it’s been dubbed, is scheduled for a hearing in an appellate court January 8th. The same day DeSantis will be sworn in as Governor.

We reached out to DeSantis’ transition team for comment on this story, but did not receive a reply.