SAN ANTONIO — To hear Michelle Walker tell it, she had two options: leave Texas or go to prison.

The 32-year-old mother and self-described conservative once struggled to care for her young son Vincent, who has severe autism and experiences dozens of seizures a day. He was aggressive one minute, kicking and punching her; the next, he'd say "I love you" and save her his last bite of lunch.

Vincent was on nine medications. He was taking the maximum amount of seizure medications recommended by the Food and Drug Administration. But he wasn't getting better. The one thing Walker said made a difference — a high dose of medical cannabis — is illegal in Texas. So faced with jail time, the family moved to Colorado. "Medical refugees," they're called.

Now the young mother is back, at the Republican Party of Texas Convention, to push her fellow Republicans to ease up on the state's strict marijuana laws. She wants to come home for good, Walker says, but can't until the law changes.

"We don't want recreational use," Walker says, sitting in the Mothers Advocating Medical Marijuana for Autism booth. "This is about medical freedom."

"It's a conservative issue."

This year, Texas Republicans just may agree.

For the first time, the party has allowed advocates in favor of decriminalizing marijuana possession to have a booth in the convention hall. The party's temporary platform — a final version of which will be voted on this weekend — recommends reducing some pot penalties to a fine. And moms like Walker want this message to have staying power. They hope lawmakers meeting in Austin in January take these recommendations and make them laws.

"That's why I'm here," Walker says. "2019's the year!"

Marijuana gets a booth

There are dozens of booths in the exhibit hall at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio.

Advocates stop passersby to tell them why Texas needs fewer gun laws. Party delegates sport T-shirts from an anti-abortion group that urges Republicans to "IGNORE ROE." Vendors hawk bumper stickers advocating for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

If the booths in this hall are any indication, Republicans agree on the party's core beliefs. Oil and gas exploration? Good. Open borders? Bad. Need more information? There's a booth for that.

But there doesn't seem to be consensus when it comes to marijuana.

It's the one issue that has warring convention booths. But for the first time this year, there are more groups advocating for loosening the state's pot laws than for restricting them.

1 / 4Martha Ponce, right, talks with Amanda Martinez, who was manning the MAMMA (mothers Advocating Medical Marijuana for Autism) booth during the 2018 Texas GOP Convention held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in downtown San Antonio. Texas on Thursday, June 14, 2018. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) 2 / 4Michelle Walker, left, talks with delegates at the MAMMA (mothers advocating medical marijuana for autism) booth during the 2018 Texas GOP Convention held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in downtown San Antonio. Texas on Thursday, June 14, 2018. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) 3 / 4Delegate Dan Hale checks out the display at theTexas Hemp Industries Association booth at the 2018 Texas GOP Convention held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in downtown San Antonio. Texas on Thursday, June 14, 2018. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) 4 / 4A "Make America Great Again" cap has been altered and put on display at theTexas Hemp Industries Association booth at the 2018 Texas GOP Convention held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in downtown San Antonio. Texas on Thursday, June 14, 2018. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer)

Next to Walker's group of mothers is the Texas Hemp Industries Association, and across the hall is the Republican Liberty Caucus, which wants to decriminalize most things, including marijuana use. Also nearby are the Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition.

At the RAMP booth, Assistant Executive Director Zoe Russell hands out fliers for a pancake breakfast hosted by their umbrella group, Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy. It's Saturday, the same day delegates could vote to embrace marijuana decriminalization in the party's platform.

The platform, a list of more than 250 policy stances, does not have the force of law but can influence the legislative process.

RAMP wasn't allowed to have a booth at the party's 2016 convention, when delegates adopted a plank that doctors should be able prescribe medicinal cannabis to their patients without government interference.

In 2017, when Texas lawmakers met for the legislative session, they debated a bill to loosen the state's "compassionate use" law for medical cannabis use. It didn't become law, but more than half of the House signed on in support.

This year, the party's temporary platform committee has reiterated its call for changing the medical cannabis law and suggested decriminalizing the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana for personal use. The permanent platform committee will decide Friday whether to keep this plank in the final platform, on which the full convention of more than 8,000 delegates will vote Saturday.

Looking back, Russell says a lot can happen in two years.

"It's just surprising how it's changed," she says while standing in front of a banner featuring the beaming faces of the 31 Republicans who co-sponsored the compassionate use bill in 2017. "We're lucky to be here."

One of those faces is that of Rep. Jason Isaac, a Dripping Springs Republican. There's a difference between decriminalizing and legalizing marijuana, he insists, walking through the aisles of convention booths. The issue is so important, he says, it should be included on the list of priorities the party sends to the Texas Legislature this year.

"This should be one of the top five issues."

But while the tide seems to be turning in favor of looser medicinal cannabis laws and decriminalization, the holdouts hope their voices aren't lost.

Aubree Adams of Pueblo, Colo., was invited to the convention to tell her story on behalf of a group called Texans Against Legalizing Marijuana.

Her son tried to kill himself, Adams says. A friend with cancer had frightening visions.

"I can tell you story after story," Adams sighs. She says she's here to "unmask the marijuana charade.

"I do not believe in playing Russian roulette with people's brains."