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Mary Ann Coleman has low-functioning autism, and her father, Mark Coleman, believes she would benefit from medical marijuana. He is asking Alabama lawmakers to reconsider and pass legislation to allow patients with certain conditions to purchase and use medical marijuana (Submitted)

Monday wasn't a very good day for 13-year-old Mary Ann Coleman who suffers from low-functioning autism.

The report sent home from Glenwood Autism & Behavioral Health Center where Mary Ann attends day school shows she tried to hurt herself 337 times Monday while at school or riding the bus, her father Mark Coleman said. That number has been as high as 800; a typical day though is about 40.

"(Mary Ann) scratches herself to the point where she bleeds," he said. "She hits herself upside the ear. She pulls her hair out. She slams her head into the wall .... She has gone through my bay window. She had gone through two windows at school."

Coleman, of Alabaster, doesn't know if medical marijuana would help calm his daughter, but he wants Alabama lawmakers to, at least, let her try it to see if it can bring her some relief.

"I promise her doctor would say, if it was legal, he would say we might as well try it," Coleman said. "We have tried everything else. We might as well try this."

Medical marijuana legislation won a small victory on April 22 when the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee gave Sen. Bobby Singleton's bill a favorable report. The bill would allow for patients who suffer from 25-specific conditions to purchase a maximum of 10-ounces of medical marijuana per month.

Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R- Vestavia Hills, who decides what bills will be heard on the Senate floor, though, has vowed to not put the medical marijuana bill on a special order calendar. This would mean the bill is dead.

"It is bad legislation," he told AL.com last week. "We don't need that in Alabama."

President Pro Tem Sen. Del Marsh told the Montgomery Advertiser that he would like to see the bill come to the floor for debate.

Some lawmakers say they are against allowing medical marijuana use because they see marijuana as a gateway to other drug use. Recent studies have shown, though, that most people who use marijuana don't go on to use harder drugs.

Ron Crumpton, who wrote Singleton's bill, said he hasn't given up hope on getting the legislation to the Senate floor. He has asked Alabama residents to call and email Waggoner and other senators. Crumpton is also collecting signatures on a petition.

If Waggoner doesn't change his mind, Crumpton said medical marijuana advocates will hold a protest this weekend in Vestavia Hills.

Coleman said he wrote an open letter to Waggoner about his daughter's condition and asked him to reconsider his position.

"For Sen. Waggoner to just -- without even thinking about how medical marijuana could help people or how the tax money could help people - dismiss it as a passing fade just makes me mad," he said. "He is my senator. "

Coleman also emailed his letter to every Alabama senator that he could find an email address for; he hasn't received a response back from anyone.

Coleman said he was forced to take early retirement to serve as his daughter's full-time caregiver. In addition to low-functioning autism, Mary Ann has sensory processing disorder, disruptive behavior disorder and speech aphasia.

Mary Ann has seen a neurologist, child psychiatrist, speech therapist, occupational therapist and a behavioral therapist for her disorders.

She is on an ever-changing round of prescription medications to block the neuroreceptors in her brain. None seem to work for long, Coleman said.

"She is like a two-year-old mind in a 13-year-old's body," he said, adding that he still has to do the little things for her including brushing her teeth and hair and getting her dressed in the morning.

Mary Ann is a happy child most of the time, her dad said, but when she has what he calls a "meltdown" there is little too soothe her.

"Her meltdown periods come and go," he said. "I would like for her to be able to try (medical marijuana) without me going to prison."