{"id":111628,"date":"2015-06-22T18:16:07","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T00:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/vets-likely-to-return-pot-gift\/"},"modified":"2015-06-22T18:16:07","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T00:16:07","slug":"vets-likely-to-return-pot-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/vets-likely-to-return-pot-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Vets likely to return pot gift"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bob
Bob Collette, with the Disabled American Veterans Silver San Juan Chapter 48, received two containers of marijuana while soliciting donations for a new bus. Collette doubts the national organization will let him keep the donation.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

No good weed goes unpunished.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Colorado Grow Co., a new retail marijuana shop in Durango, generated headlines when the business gifted two sealed containers of pot to a group for disabled veterans.<\/p>\n

News of the gift broke Wednesday, when Bob Collette, executive director of Disabled American Veterans Silver San Juan Chapter 48, delightedly told the media that he didn\u2019t know what, exactly, he could do with this generous, albeit novel, donation of two one-eighth-ounce containers of Grape Krush with 14.31 percent THC.<\/p>\n

Collette hoped the donation could go toward his campaign to buy a new bus to ferry local veterans to and from the Veterans Affairs hospital in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

Within hours, he was contacted by federal agents, Collette said in an interview Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a call from the DEA. I had to take the gift down to the police department, where they photographed it and had to make sure it was all up and up and legal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was legal,\u201d Collette said. \u201cThe police were pretty amused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though DAV Chapter 48 has regained possession of the marijuana for now, Collette said it looks like the group will have to give the gift \u2013 valued at $79.90 after taxes \u2013 back to Colorado Grow Co. at the insistence of DAV\u2019s national organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t sell it, but the article has caused quite a response,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve had three or four calls from women \u2013 always women \u2013 asking if I still have it and would I like to part with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collette said he\u2019s a married man. \u201cNobody\u2019s asked me if I\u2019m free and easy or anything,\u201d he said. \u201cThese women don\u2019t want me \u2013 they\u2019re after the donation.\u201d<\/p>\n

News of DAV\u2019s marijuana donation has spread far and wide.<\/p>\n

Collette said an Illinois woman also called him, saying she enjoyed the story so much, she was going to put it on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what Facebook is, but this lady from Chicago said it might make us famous and get us more money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While several local businesses have made donations to the DAV since the story broke, Collette said that so far no donors had followed Colorado Grow Co.\u2019s example by bestowing the veterans group with narcotics forbidden by the federal government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had anything illegal given to us that I\u2019m aware of, like cocaine or heroin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the DAV still has to raise $10,000 to reach its $16,000 goal for the bus program.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s optimistic it can be done, and some of the DAV\u2019s most historically reliable donors haven\u2019t yet given to the veterans organization this year.<\/p>\n

Collette said he expects most forthcoming donations to come in as cash or checks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose one of our biggest donors, Coors Brewing Co., could give us a bunch of beer this year. That wouldn\u2019t be a horrible thing!\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of restrictions on that \u2013 at least, I\u2019m sure the DEA wouldn\u2019t call.\u201d<\/p>\n

cmcallister@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National organization wants marijuana given back to shop<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[94,3929],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-111628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-gays-and-lesbians"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111628"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=111628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}