ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Just over three months ago, Floridians appeared to overwhelmingly support legalizing medical marijuana. And while the majority of voters supported the measure on Tuesday's ballot, it failed to get the needed 60 percent to be added to the Florida constitution.



Both sides were optimistic that they were going to come out on top as results began coming in Tuesday night, but with 82 percent reporting, the measure had only 57 percent support.



"We needed 60 percent. We came close," John Morgan, a prominent lawyer who poured millions of his own money into the medical marijuana campaign, said in a Tweet. "We tried our best, this is only the first battle. We will win this war!"

"Today, the people of Florida strongly and wisely rejected efforts to make Florida the next front in the push to legalize marijuana nationwide," Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation, said in a statement. "I am proud that Florida voters saw this amendment for what it really was: a backdoor entrance for the full legalization of marijuana."

If Amendment 2 had passed, Fay said her organization, "would insist that everything that could possibly be done would be done. We may even look at legal action. We have to look at that when the time comes."

Supporters said they're going to go to lawmakers to continue the fight to make medical marijuana legal in Florida.

Moriah Barnhart, whose 4-year-old daughter, Dahlia, has been successfully using medical marijuana for about a year to help with brain cancer, was disappointed the amendment failed to pass Tuesday.

"I know that tonight there's a lot of Floridians who are suffering. There are Floridians who are dying that don't have time to wait, and I know that a lot of people are going to bed tonight heartbroken and devastated," Barnhart said. "My decisions in my daughter's care, the most compassionate care, are not my neighbor's decisions and they're certainly not my government's decisions. So for the people that are suffering, for the people that are dying, for the people that need help today, please reach out to us at cannamoms.com, and we will do everything in our power to help you today."

The pot proposal was one of three constitutional amendments on the ballot. In the run-up to Tuesday, it appeared that voters widely supported a proposed amendment that would lead to increased funding for land conservation and other environmental projects, and it passed easily. A third amendment, which involved the appointment of Supreme Court justices and appeals-court judges, had received relatively little attention and failed to pass.



Constitutional amendments require approval from 60 percent of voters to pass.



The medical-marijuana initiative, which was Amendment 2 on the ballot, was spearheaded by Morgan, an Orlando attorney who is known throughout the state for his ubiquitous Morgan and Morgan law-firm television ads and billboards.



In July, a Quinnipiac University poll indicated that 88 percent of Floridians -- across all age groups -- approved of medical marijuana. But support for the proposed amendment later dropped as it was hit with millions of dollars in television ads and opposition from sheriffs, Republican leaders and business groups.



Opponents said the amendment included loopholes that would lead to a wide-open pot industry that would go far beyond helping patients who suffer from debilitating illnesses. The anti-Amendment 2 effort got crucial help from Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who contributed $5.5 million to the Drug Free Florida political committee, which ran ads blasting the proposal.



"Too broad. Too many risks. Vote no on Amendment 2," said an ad released last week.



But United for Care, a group that led the amendment campaign, said the attacks were aimed at scaring voters and were untrue.



While the medical-marijuana initiative was highly controversial, the land-conservation amendment drew grumbling from Republican legislative leaders and some business groups but appeared to have no organized opposition.

The proposal, which was Amendment 1 on the ballot, requires the state to dedicate a portion of real-estate tax revenue over the next 20 years for environmental preservation. The proposal will generate billions of dollars from the already-existing tax, with the money going to buy or restore areas crucial to Florida's water supply, such as the land around springs, and natural systems that have been despoiled, such as the Everglades.



Supporters argued the measure was necessary because lawmakers in recent years dramatically reduced funding for the Florida Forever conservation program. Republican legislative leaders, however, argued against the amendment because it will force lawmakers to set aside a pot of money every year for conservation and give them less flexibility in how to spend tax dollars.



The third amendment on the ballot was placed there by Republican lawmakers and involved a complicated question about the appointment of future Supreme Court justices and appeals-court judges.



The proposal was spurred by the possibility that three Supreme Court justices -- Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince -- will have to step down in early 2019 because of a mandatory retirement age. They could leave the court at the same time a new governor takes office, depending on the outcome of the 2018 gubernatorial election.



The amendment would have allowed an outgoing governor -- rather than the incoming governor -- to appoint the replacements. Supporters said the proposal was needed to avoid a potential constitutional crisis that could emerge if there is a dispute about who holds the appointment power.



But Democrats and other critics argued that the proposal was a power grab by Republican supporters of Gov. Rick Scott, who, if re-elected Tuesday, would leave office in early 2019. In such a scenario, Scott -- and not his successor – would have been able to fill the Supreme Court openings.