"I get up in the morning and take one of these, one of these, one of these and two of these. Then eight hours later I take one of these, these and two more of them,” said Cooper.

Cooper says she numbers her days by the pills she takes.

"On a bad day I end up taking about 13 pills a day.”

They’re prescription painkillers that she believes could be eliminated altogether if she could use marijuana instead.

"I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia for the last two to three years."

She knows pot would help from personal experience.

“On a pain scale of 9, I could probably bring it down to a 5 or a 4 within about 30 minutes,” she said.

Those quick results would come without bad side effects, she claims, that she feels on her other meds.

"They could cause you to have thoughts of suicide and all. Nausea -- that medication is one of the most nauseating meds I've ever taken.”

Cooper spends time online garnering supporters.

"When you really begin to search, you find thousands (of supporters) but, so far, it's not with the people who can make it happen,” she said.

It's proven to be an uphill battle with little momentum in Missouri. A bill is introduced in the House but not even assigned to a legislative committee. Some say it's of little priority and credibility.

"When they write a prescription, they'll tell you to take a certain amount so many times a day in certain quantities. Well, there are no studies to tell any doctor how to do that intelligently,” said Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Darrell Moore in Springfield.

Moore says legalization of medical marijuana is a license for trouble in some states.

"In California and Washington and some states where this is going on, law enforcement will tell you it's being abused, that there are more people using it than who need it for medical purposes,” said Moore.

“There are pot heads, there are people who just want it, but there are some of us who our lives could be enriched if we were allowed to have it,” said Cooper.

There are pending bills or ballot measures in 12 states that would legalize medical marijuana.