Attorney John Morgan said on Wednesday that the passing of Amendment 2 was four years in the making. Morgan also said that he's spend as much as $9,000,000 dollars to make medical marijuana legal in Florida.
"We took all of our mistakes and all of the lessons learned from 2014 and we used it here," said Morgan. "Two years later, we were smarter, we were better prepared. We made changes to our language and we decided from that battle that we lost early on, that we were ultimately going to win the war."
[Read more on Amendment 2: What you should know I Amendment 2 passes]
Amendment 2 passed with about 71 percent of the vote when it only needed 60 percent.
Morgan also said that the passing of medicinal cannabis is personal after his brother Tim was paralyzed from a diving accident.
"He called me and it was like ... because I've seen him suffer so badly. I mean if you saw Tim get dressed. You'd be like, you know, how do you do it?" said Morgan.
It's still unclear exactly what the rollout of medical marijuana in Florida will look like, with Morgan himself saying it will take at least a couple years before it's available.
"What we are going to need now is facilities, and grow facilities and dispensaries to take care of 4400,000-500,000 people," said Morgan. "For the state of Florida, it is going to be a financial boom. I mean in Colorado, taxes, real estate, jobs."
News 6 checked in with a medical marijuana patient on Wednesday, after he received his first dose on Monday. Juan Cruz, 15, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In fact, his cancer became so aggressive that doctors have stopped trying to prevent it from spreading.
Cruz is using liquid cannabis spray for the past couple days, hoping to reduce the amount of morphine he uses on a daily basis.
His mother, Jacqueline Cuevas, said that she's already seeing an improvement.
"It's only six sprays that he takes three times a day, and it's incredible how the change (affects him). You can just see the change. You can see he's more alert as well," said Cuevas. "What mother doesn't want their child to be well? You know, I just want him to be well and live as normal as possible. Live as comfortable as possible."
Juan was diagnosed with cancer in August 2014.
"He was always such an outgoing kid. Amazing kid. A leader. He was very social. Loved to be around people. He loved to dance, perform. He's an amazing kid," said Cuevas. "People sometimes, people are just not going to get it. You know, they are not going to understand until they see one of their loved ones going through what my son has had to go through."
Cuevas said she was happy to see Amendment 2 pass.
Cruz said on Wednesday that he's excited that other kids in his situation won't have to wait through the 90-day waiting period under current Florida law.
"I was extremely happy. I was so happy. I was just like, oh my gosh, you know, change has come. We've been praying for this," said Cuevas. "His breathing and his nausea and his pain. He hasn't had to even press his morphine button. It's just amazing."
The state legislature will work on implementing medical marijuana during the next session.
If you would like to help 15-year-old Juan Cruz's medical expenses, you can visit https://www.crowdrise.com/staystrongjuan/fundraiser/jacquelinecuevas-fernandez.