LOS ANGELES (AP) — Here’s another thing travelers can consider bringing when a trip takes them through Los Angeles International Airport — marijuana.

Just be careful about carrying it onto the plane.

A written policy posted by airport police says small amounts of weed may now be brought into one of the world’s busiest airports. But, police warn, possession of any amount is still a federal crime and TSA agents may find your stash.

What happens if they do remains a little murky.

TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said Thursday that agents won’t take it away but will summon the police and let them deal with it.

“TSA’s focus is on terrorism and security threats to the aircraft and its passengers,” Dankers said in an email.

“Whether or not the passenger is allowed to travel with marijuana is up to law enforcement’s discretion,” she added.

If it turns out a traveler is carrying no more than 28.5 grams (about an ounce), or 8 grams in concentrated form, airport police will simply turn them loose.

“Because there is no crime,” said airport Officer Alicia Hernandez.

Still, police caution people to think twice before embarking on a cannabis-fueled vacation.

“Passengers should be aware that marijuana laws vary state by state and they are encouraged to check the laws of the states in which they plan to travel,” says the statement posted on the website flylax.com last January after California legalized recreational marijuana.

So far, few if any other airports seem to have followed suit.

San Diego International Airport has no policy on pot, said spokesman Jonathan Heller.

In Colorado, one of the first states to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012, it is still illegal to bring it into Denver International Airport.

Airport spokeswoman Emily Williams says that’s because possession is still a federal crime and air travel is governed by federal authorities.

In any case, few have been caught carrying pot, she said, and for those who have the penalty was light if the amount was small.

“If it’s a small amount the TSA and the Denver Police Department will ask that person to dispose of it and if that person is willing to do that they move through,” she said.

Still the best advice to travelers, says Douglas Kidd, executive director of the National Association of Airline Passengers, is to leave your stash at home. You can always buy more when you get there.

“The first thing the TSA is going to do is if they find something that is illegal for federal purposes is they’re going to refer it to local law enforcement,” Kidd said.

“Now local law enforcement may say, ‘We’re not going to do anything.’ But still, the delay could cause you to miss your flight.”

Every few months for the past four years, Tillis, has driven five hours with her husband, daughter and Cooper’s oldest daughter, making the trip from Rialto to the federal prison in Atwater, near Merced. They’d spend the day visiting and chatting, and guards would let each family member give Cooper exactly one hug. When the visit was over, they’d reluctantly pile into the car and drive home.

But that routine ended a month ago. Cooper was transferred to a federal prison in Louisiana, and Tillis said her family can’t afford that trip.

So, last month, just before he left California, Tillis and crew made a shorter drive to Victorville, where Cooper was taken while in transit to Louisiana. There, the mother stretched out her arms to say goodbye by giving her son a mock hug through a glass barrier.

Then Cooper, 38, headed off to continue serving his sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for conspiracy to sell marijuana.

Life for one

On Oct. 21, 2013, Cooper was found guilty of money laundering, tax evasion and conspiracy to distribute more than one ton of marijuana. Court records say Cooper packed and shipped cannabis from California to North Carolina, and helped to funnel the proceeds through different bank accounts to avoid detection.

There was no allegation of violence and Cooper’s record does not include any violence.

The cross-country investigation that led to Cooper’s incarceration, known as “Operation Goldilocks,” resulted in more than 50 arrests. No one else got a life sentence, including the alleged leader of the network, and many of Cooper’s co-conspirators are already back home.

But Cooper, from Los Angeles, had two prior drug felonies on his record. Despite an Obama administration memo issued just before Cooper’s trial, instructing courts to not pursue enhanced sentences for people accused of non-violent drug offenses, prosecutors in North Carolina insisted on applying a Three Strikes law to Cooper’s case. At sentencing, the judge said he had no choice but to send the then-34-year-old away for life without the possibility of parole.

“You’ve got murderers and rapists and pedophiles doing these horrible crimes and getting out,” said Anthony Alegrete, a high school friend of Cooper’s who served a short sentence related to the North Carolina case and now lives in San Diego, where he works for a boutique marketing company.

“Meanwhile, you’ve got a guy locked up for life when there was no violence, no weapons, no hard drugs – just selling marijuana. That’s just wrong.”

Last year, Cooper heard some hopeful news. Changes in California law have reduced Cooper’s prior drug convictions from felonies to misdemeanors, leaving him with no prior strikes on his record.

Still, so far, a federal court in North Carolina has refused to reduce his sentence.

With few options, Cooper’s attorney is appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. He’s also directly petitioning President Donald Trump for clemency, with many Cooper supporters anxious to see how such an appeal will play out under a President who prides himself on being unpredictable.

Patrick Megaro, an Orlando lawyer who has represented Cooper pro bono since 2014, described the last-ditch bid succinctly.

“I’m just hoping that somebody, somewhere — whether that’s in the White House or across the street at the Supreme Court — sees that this particular sentence is complete madness.”

Others reach out

Other advocates also are taking up Cooper’s cause.

Amy Povah, founder of the nonprofit Clemency for All Non-Violent Drug Offenders, or CAN-DO, included Cooper on a list of prisoners she believes deserve clemency. A week ago, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s niece, Alveda King, delivered that list of roughly 100 names — including Cooper — to the White House.

King called it “outrageous” for people to be serving long sentences for marijuana. And while she said she couldn’t discuss details of how Trump is handling clemency cases, she said, “I do believe that the President is very genuine about prison reform.”

Povah said Cooper’s case highlights a number of persistent problems with the criminal justice system, from how defendants who refuse plea deals are penalized to the seemingly unequal application of drug conspiracy laws and mandatory minimum sentences.

Cooper’s case also stands out, she said, because unlike other “pot lifers” he wasn’t locked up years ago, at the height of the war on drugs. Cooper received a life sentence for a non-violent marijuana crime during President Barack Obama’s administration, just four months before Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize the recreational use of cannabis.

“It’s absolutely heinous to think that people can now legally work in this field, and invest in it for something that someone else is serving life in prison for – or any sentence, for that matter,” Povah said.

That conflict is central to a documentary expected out in early 2019, which will feature Cooper’s story. It’s also why Cooper’s portrait and letters are included in the “Pot Lifer Museum,” opening soon inside a marijuana dispensary in Ojai. And it’s a reason cited by many of the 15,000 people who’ve so far signed a Change.org petition calling for Cooper’s release.

Lessons learned

Cooper grew up in South Central Los Angeles. His parents weren’t together, and Tillis said his dad was in and out of his life. But Cooper was a happy kid, she said, always smiling and quick to help out.

Cooper earned good grades in school, though Tillis said his teachers sometimes complained about his behavior. He liked to get attention, she said, and she hoped sending him to performing arts schools would direct that impulse toward acting or music.

At Hollywood High School, classmate Alegrete said Cooper was popular and known for his trendy style.

“He was the guy that everybody wanted to dress like,” he said.

Cooper’s love of clothes led him to work at Ross after high school.

But during this period, Cooper also started getting into trouble. From 1998 to 2011, Los Angeles County court records show Cooper was convicted of more than a dozen nonviolent crimes, including petty theft, forgery and perjury. After he was caught with a brick of marijuana and cough syrup with codeine that wasn’t prescribed to him, he served nearly a year in state prison.

When Cooper was released in July 2012, he said he’d learned his lesson. He turned his attention to his fiancée, two young daughters, and making an honest living. He opened a clothing store in his old Los Angeles neighborhood and trademarked a clothing line called “Old Money,” which attracted attention from the likes of Charles Barkley.

“He was changing his life around,” Alegrete said. “He was following his dream.”

Surprise arrest

On Jan. 28, 2013, as Cooper was taking his oldest daughter to drill team competition, federal agents appeared at Cooper’s driveway in Inglewood and placed him under arrest.

The family was baffled, Tillis said, since they believed Cooper had cleaned up his act. Then they learned that one of Cooper’s childhood friends had recently received a reduced sentence by fingering Cooper as one of the people helping to traffic marijuana to the East Coast since 2004.

Cooper’s federal case was headed to court in North Carolina at about the same time that George Zimmerman was going to trial for shooting unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin. With Zimmerman found not guilty, Tillis said she had no faith in the justice system and she begged Cooper to plead out. But Cooper refused to disclose the names of anybody he knew to be in the drug distribution business or say that he was guilty of charges that he still insists were wildly exaggerated.

The trial played out like an echo. Authorities didn’t catch Cooper in the act or find him with cash or weed beyond that one brick in 2009. Instead, the case is a textbook example of what’s known as “ghost dope,” with investigators relying on phone records and testimony from a string of fellow conspirators about actions that previously occurred. They then did the math to estimate how much weed the group might have processed over the years, and they held Cooper accountable for all of it.

Megaro said Cooper felt confident about his case. So, even though he knew the Three Strikes law was on the table, he made the rare choice to go to trial. And Tillis said her son has never regretted that decision.

Enhanced sentence

By the time Megaro met Cooper, a jury had already found him guilty. But Cooper’s mom reached out to the lawyer for help with his sentencing and appeals.

“I liked the guy right off the bat,” Megaro said. “He was a complete gentleman, very polite and respectful. As a criminal defense lawyer, you don’t always get that.”

The life sentence was looming, but the men were hopeful. Two months before Cooper was found guilty, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a memo directing district attorneys around the country not to pursue enhanced sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. It was part of a broader push under Obama to reduce the number of people behind bars for nonviolent crimes.

Megaro said the federal prosecutor in the case, Steven Kaufman, chose not to, requesting that Cooper be sentenced to life even though he could have used Holder’s memo as a rationale to do so. Kaufman, contacted recently, declined to discuss that decision.

In court, prosecutors painted Cooper as a leader in the trafficking ring, discussing the millions of dollars that must have been made. They brought up Cooper’s past criminal history. And they said one of the co-conspirators had seen Cooper carry a gun, though no such charges were ever filed.

Megaro insists Cooper was a middle man, at most, and that there was no evidence he’d used or threatened to use violence. And Cooper didn’t appear to have profited greatly from any role in the scheme, since, unlike some of his co-conspirators, he couldn’t afford to hire a private attorney for the trial.

When it came time for sentencing, Megaro recalls feeling Cooper tremble as he stood beside him.

Transcripts show that US. District Judge Robert Conrad, Jr. told Cooper he was sympathetic to his plight. Conrad said it was “troubling” not to have discretion when it came to imposing a life sentence on a 34-year-old man. But given the mandatory minimums and prior strikes at play, Conrad told Cooper his hands were tied.

Appeals denied

Megaro appealed Cooper’s case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but in 2016 the justices declined to hear it. Still, two decisions made by California voters while Cooper has been in prison serve to give Megaro and Cooper hope.

First, in 2014, voters approved Proposition 47, reducing many drug crimes to misdemeanors. Under that new law, Cooper’s conviction for possession of cough syrup with codeine was downgraded from a felony to a misdemeanor.

Then, in November 2016, voters approved Proposition 64. In addition to legalizing the recreational use of cannabis, the measure reduced or eliminated nearly every marijuana-related crime. And in May 2017, Cooper’s felony marijuana charge from 2009 was reduced to a misdemeanor.

Earlier this year, Megaro went back to federal appeals court in North Carolina and explained that Cooper’s two prior felonies were no longer strikes. But they refused to reconsider his sentence.

In July, Megaro filed a new petition with the Supreme Court. And, last month, they got one bit of potentially encouraging news, when Solicitor General Noel Francisco requested more time to submit the government’s response to Cooper’s petition.

Though Francisco’s request might turn out to be inconsequential, Megaro noted that 99 percent of all petitions never make it to court and that of the roughly 50 petitions he’s submitted to the Supreme Court in his 17-year career as a lawyer, the government has filed a response in only one other case.

“It’s always a good sign,” Megaro said, “when you’ve caught someone’s attention.”

Pleading for clemency

As they wait to hear back from the Supreme Court, Megaro is also appealing Cooper’s case to the White House — for the second time.

In 2014, President Barack Obama announced a clemency initiative aimed at reducing sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. The initiative included a list of pre-requisites for clemency candidates and Cooper checked every box except one — he’d been in prison for just three years, not 10 or more. Still, in 2016, when Megaro submitted the petition, he thought, “There’s no way (Cooper) can get denied clemency.”

The Obama administration didn’t offer an explanation beyond saying Cooper’s petition had been turned down.

Since taking office 18 months ago, Trump has granted seven pardons and commuted four sentences. Most reprieves have gone to figures popular with his political base, such as Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. But in June, Trump moved to release Alice Johnson — a 63-year-old black woman who’d been in prison for 21 years on nonviolent drug charges — a decision that got many prisoners and advocates excited.

“He can just snap his fingers and make it so,” Megaro said, hoping for a similarly happy ending for Cooper.

For now, Alegrete said his high school friend is holding it together.

“He does not believe he’s going to do life in prison at all.”

His family tries to stay optimistic, too. Cooper’s sister said she dreams about the party they’ll throw when her little brother comes home. And his dad hopes to help him land a job and a fresh start where he lives, in Las Vegas.

The only time Cooper really gets down, Alegrete said, is when he lets himself think about the nearly six years he’s already missed with his now 8-year-old daughter, Scotlyn, and 12-year-old daughter, Cleer.

When he missed another birthday recently, Cooper sent this message to Scotlyn:

“Being real and true to these streets snatched me away from you. But know that upon my return (and it will be soon) that our lives will get reunited again and I’ll be the daddy you always wanted.”

MedMen, a Culver City company that operates high-end cannabis shops in California, Nevada and New York and has aggressive expansion plans, announced Villaraigosa’s appointment Wednesday morning. Villaraigosa adds political and governmental experience to a board made up of branding, entertainment and accounting executives.

Other recent additions to the company’s board include Stacey Hallerman, a former executive at the conglomerate that owns luxury brands Montblanc and Cartier, and Jay Brown, the chief executive of RocNation, the entertainment company co-founded by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter.

In a statement announcing the appointment, MedMen Chief Executive Adam Bierman called Villaraigosa an experienced, connected leader who will help the cannabis firm continue to expand.

“Few people understand Los Angeles and our home state better than Mayor Villaraigosa,” Bierman said. “He will be instrumental in guiding MedMen’s expansion in the Golden State, and through his broad network, Mr. Villaraigosa will help MedMen solidify its presence across the country.”

The former mayor told the Los Angeles Times in an interview Wednesday that he hopes to use his political connections and his new role with MedMen to advocate for effective social-equity programs, which, like other cannabis policies, have yet to be fully implemented.

Such programs adopted by Los Angeles and other cities offer preferential permitting and other assistance to entrepreneurs previously charged with marijuana-related crimes or from neighborhoods disproportionately affected by marijuana arrests.

“I have a relationship with those communities that’s as strong as anyone’s,” Villaraigosa said. “I understand the goal [of social equity]; I’ve supported it from the beginning. But we’ve got to make it work. Right now, a lot of what we have is doodles on paper.”

MedMen has been expanding its board since going public earlier this year to help fund its expansion amid stiff competition. Its stock is traded on Toronto’s Canadian Securities Exchange, which has become a haven for cannabis firms seeking public status.

Earlier this month, Constellation Brands Inc., an alcoholic-beverage company whose holdings include Corona beer, Robert Mondavi wine and hard liquor brands, announced it will spend about $3.8 billion to boost its stake in Canopy Growth Corp., a Canadian grower betting on full legalization of pot sales in the United States and other international markets.

Businesses have often turned to Villaraigosa when they needed a friendly public face. Downtown L.A. supplement company Herbalife hired him as an advisor amid long-running accusations that it was a pyramid scheme targeting poor and minority victims. Santa Ana lender Banc of California hired him when it was looking to make inroads in the Latino community; he later helped negotiate a deal that eased tensions between the bank and community groups.

Bierman said he hopes Villaraigosa can play a similar role as mediator between the cannabis industry and city hall, especially when it comes to social-equity programs. Bierman suggested such programs could prove burdensome to businesses — an outcome MedMen wants to avoid.

“In his life, he’s been a mediator and a conduit for compromise,” he said. “How do you make sure a social-equity program is created and exists in L.A that is the gold standard, while also ensuring commercial viability?”

MedMen was one of the few cannabis companies that backed Villaraigosa’s gubernatorial campaign. The company gave $29,200 — the legal limit — to the campaign, though it also donated that amount to Democratic nominee and cannabis-industry favorite Gavin Newsom, state records show.

Villaraigosa is not the first big-name politico to get into the cannabis business. Earlier this year, former House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, joined New York cannabis firm Acreage Holdings as an advisor. Former Massachusetts governor and Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee William Weld is also an Acreage advisor.

The former mayor has a mixed record on cannabis issues. As mayor, he sought to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, but he endorsed the 2016 state ballot measure, Proposition 64, that legalized the sale of cannabis to adults age 21 and older.
Villaraigosa, 65, said he smoked cannabis in his youth — “I grew up in the 1960s; everybody in my neighborhood did” — but hedged on whether he’s done so more recently. “I’m not aware of all the new products out there,” he said.

MedMen spokesman Daniel Yi said he could not disclose the compensation package for Villaraigosa and other new board members. Those details should be made public in the coming weeks in a securities filing.

MedMen operates 14 cannabis shops in Southern California and Nevada, with a focus on high-end, high-visibility shopping districts. It has a store on New York’s famed Fifth Avenue, Robertson Boulevard in West L.A., Abbot Kinney in Venice and a redeveloping stretch of Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.

Bierman told The Times this year that the company wants to open more stores in similarly high-profile locations in the United States and eventually around the world.

“How do you become the trusted brand in the hearts and minds of the marijuana users of tomorrow? You do it on Fifth Avenue, you do it in Beverly Hills,” he said.

© 2018 the Los Angeles Times. Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles began accepting license applications from marijuana growers, manufacturers and testing companies Wednesday, after months of delays that left many businesses in the state’s largest legal marketplace struggling to survive.

The start of the process arrived with a mix of relief and anxiety from businesses that have been waiting since Jan. 1, when California broadly legalized cannabis for adults, to enter the legal economy.

“We’ve been hanging on by the skin of our teeth,” said retailer and cultivator Donnie Anderson, who has been paying thousands of dollars of rent for months on commercial space he hasn’t been able to use without a cultivation license.

Los Angeles was once expected to be a showcase for the state’s legal pot economy, but it has moved cautiously with licensing and its market has developed more slowly than in San Diego, Oakland and other major cities.

So far, LA has only licensed about 150 retail shops, with the rest of the supply chain in limbo.

Across the state, the effort to transform the long-established pot industry, much of it illegal, into a multibillion-dollar, regulated marketplace has been uneven at best. Illegal sales continue to flourish, undercutting legal shops, while there are widespread complaints about hefty taxes on purchases and growing.

Local governments are permitted to outlaw commercial cannabis activity, so the availability of legal pot depends on where a customer is trying to make a purchase. Initial tax collections by the state fell far short of initial projections.

It’s also not clear when the first cultivation licenses for recreational pot will be issued by the city. LA’s top pot regulator, Cat Packer, said last month the city didn’t want to commit to a timeline because rules continue to change as the new system is refined.

Industry insiders have warned that delays in licensing threaten the marijuana supply chain, which could collapse and leave store shelves depleted.

Cannabis industry attorney Aaron Lachant said the slow pace of licensing has crimped supplies, leaving a relatively small number of cultivators and manufacturers supplying storefronts across the state.

In Los Angeles, retailers have turned to Northern and Central California to bring in products from licensed operators. Under state law, licensed retailers can only do business with other licensed companies.

Without licensed growers and manufacturers in LA, “the retailers have had to figure out new supply relationships with licensees across the state,” Lachant said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles will kick off the process for licensing marijuana cultivators and manufacturers on Aug. 1, but it’s likely to be many months before any of those companies open their doors for business.

The announcement Monday was greeted with a mix of anticipation and frustration by growers and other businesses awaiting licenses that have watched the illicit market flourish.

California broadly legalized cannabis on Jan. 1, but Los Angeles has moved cautiously with licensing. Growers and others seeking licenses will have to go through a tiered review in which applicants must show they meet a range of legal requirements, as well as pass inspections.

About 150 retailers have opened in the city, but the rest of the supply chain has been on hold.

Donnie Anderson, a Los Angeles cultivator and dispensary owner, said he’s been paying rent for months on commercial space he can’t use without a license, straining his budget.

He told the city Cannabis Regulation Commission “we don’t want to wait too much longer.”

The announcement was made by the city’s top pot regulator, Cat Packer, who said rules continue to change as the city refines the new system.

When might the first cultivator licenses go out?

“There are many steps that have not even been solidified,” she said. “I cannot commit to a timeline at this point.”

The commission heard a long line of now-familiar complaints about the uneven state of the L.A. market, which was once expected to be a model for the rest of the state but has developed more slowly than San Diego, Oakland and other major cities.

The concerns ranged from a robust illegal market that is undercutting the legal one, hefty tax rates and questions about who would be eligible for licenses.

Commission President Robert Ahn indicated that the industry would need patience as the city continues to transform the long-established industry into a multibillion-dollar, regulated marketplace.

“We have tremendous challenges,” Ahn said. “It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to take time.”

The fate of a nascent effort to create a bank owned by the city of Los Angeles and meant to help legally-permitted cannabis businesses could be decided by voters this fall.

The City Council on Tuesday will vote on whether to start the process of placing a measure on the November ballot, asking voters to let the city create a “purely commercial enterprise”— something prohibited by L.A.’s charter.

If voters approved such a charter amendment, it would remove one of a handful of hurdles standing in the way of a city-owned bank, something city officials have been studying for nearly a year since Council President Herb Wesson raised the idea ahead of the Jan. 1 legalization of recreational marijuana sales.

He said a public bank not owned by shareholders could provide services to scores of local cannabis businesses, which are shunned by most banks because of federal drug laws and are often forced to deal entirely in cash. It also could offer loans to other small businesses and help finance affordable housing.

But creating such an institution would be expensive and legally tricky, especially if it set out to serve the cannabis industry. A February report from the city’s chief legislative analyst found it “would be a very difficult process, would be very costly, and would result in an institution that would not likely qualify to receive city business.”

One of the key issues raised in that report is that the city charter prohibits the creation of industrial or commercial enterprises without voter approval.

The motion the council will consider Tuesday was brought by Wesson and would direct City Atty. Mike Feuer to write a charter amendment and start the process of putting it on the November ballot.

Even if the council approves the motion, it would need to take additional steps to place a measure on the ballot.

And even if voters approve a measure, a city-owned bank would be far from a done deal. Echoing the legislative analyst’s report, Wesson’s motion acknowledges that the creation of a public bank may also require changes to state and federal law.

© 2018 the Los Angeles Times. Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.