The nephew of a mobster, the wife of a presidential adviser and a bourbon heir all have one thing in common: Pot in Nevada.

Since the advent of legal weed in Nevada, the identities of people financing the state's green rush were kept secret. In May, that all changed with a public database that released more than 10,000 marijuana business records.

Nevadans for the first time were able to see who owns the local marijuana industry: stay-at-home-moms, strip club owners, former gaming executives, a good number of politicians and lobbyists — even a past member of the U.S. ski team, according to a Reno Gazette Journal analysis of the database.

SEARCH OUR DATABASE OF MARIJUANA LICENSE HOLDERS IN NEVADA HERE

'I don’t care about the transparency'

While some investors wanted to remain cloaked in secrecy to avoid the stigma, getting their bank accounts shut down, or being the target of crime because of the cash-heavy nature of the industry, at least one investor said he's unfazed and little has changed.

"If the Feds want me: Come and get me. They know where to find me," said John Spilotro, nephew of Anthony "The Ant" Spilotro,the mob-connected enforcer for Las Vegas casinos who was tied to several murders in Nevada before his murder in an Illinois cornfield in 1986.

"That’s the story of my life," said Spilotro, an attorney, who co-owns cultivation, production, distribution and dispensary locations in Clark County.

"I don’t care about the transparency, it doesn’t bother me," he said.

Not everyone is quite as welcome to the limelight as Spilotro.

It's a 'long answer'

Gov. Steve Sisolak said it was the public's right to know who's got a hand in the weed industry.

The names of any owner, officer or board member of a company that applied for a state-issued marijuana business license are now public, a major step toward ensuring booming pot businesses don’t fall victim to the same type of corruption that once plagued Nevada’s casinos.

"I don’t think the industry was ever going to be this attractive safe haven for the mafia. There were FBI background checks, there was extensive documentation, you had to document where your money was coming from, but long term I think this will benefit the industry," said Riana Durett, of the Nevada Dispensary Association.

The names of some 8,900 people are listed on the Nevada Department of Taxation's website, some of them were particularly eyebrow raising, including that of the former department head who oversaw the creation of the most recent cannabis industry regulations: Deonne Contine.

Contine is listed as a board member for Sierra Well, which owns dispensaries in Reno and Carson City. She was on the board for four or five months after leaving her position as the executive director of the taxation department in January 2018, she told the Reno Gazette Journal in an email , though she did not want to discuss it at length.

"I ultimately decided (actually very quickly) that the private sector just wasn't where my heart is. I was happy to have the opportunity to transition back to public service, which is really what I have a passion for," said Contine, who has since left Sierra Well.

Sisolak appointed her as the director of the Department of Administration in February.

Former Nevada assemblywoman Lucy Flores, who said presidential candidate Joe Biden inappropriately kissed her on the head, is listed as a board member for Greemart of Nevada.

She wrote in an email to the Reno Gazette Journal that it was a long answer behind her involvement and she didn't have time to talk about it.

Made in Nevada, owned by Chicago

Not all of the money made off of the burgeoning industry is going to Nevadans.

Many of the top in-state 'pot-repreneurs', in fact, are out out of state.

Nevada's top cannabis operator, Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries, runs Essence dispensaries in Las Vegas and Rise dispensaries in Spanish Springs and Carson City.

Green Thumb employs a number of business magnates, including:

Bestselling author and decorated combat veteran Wes Moore

Jim Bean whiskey bourbon heir Ben Kovler

Former Urban Outfitters CEO Glen Senk

And Jennifer Dooley, who formerly led strategic brand development for Storck, the confectioner that makes Werther's Originals caramels.

All of them have Nevada marijuana licenses cushioning their coffers.

One of the few local-ish members of Team Green Thumb is Alejandro Yemenidjian, former CEO of MGM, and current CEO of Hotel Ramada of Nevada and the Tropicana Las Vegas. He invested in cannabis with his son, Armen.

'I felt it was unnecessary'

A number of notable Renoites also were also listed by the release of state documents.

Steven Nightingale, a former operator of the Cal-Neva Club in Reno and now a co-owner of Sierra Well, said he was not a fan of the bill because he values his privacy.

"I felt it was unnecessary but it’s (the state's) job to decide what’s in the public's best interest," said Nightingale, who spends his days as a poet and an author.

Experience in the highly regulated gaming industry helped him navigate the highly regulated cannabis industry, he said.

Nightingale, who has several event venues in the Reno area named after his family, said he was compelled to invest in cannabis because he worked with Vietnam veterans at the Veterans Affairs hospital when he was a student in the 1970s.

"The one medicine that all of the patients wanted was the one they couldn't have," said Nightingale. "They had counted on it during their service, and they knew its effectiveness in treating chronic pain and trauma."

He also jumped on the wagon because his late friend, Joe Crowley, president of University of Nevada, Reno, was extremely persuasive. Crowley's wife remains a co-owner of Sierra Well beside Nightingale.

'It's for helping my daughter'

Another big Reno name in the business: Cashell.

Catherine Cashell-Mannikko, daughter of former Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, said she is fine with people knowing about her role in the industry. She co-owns The Dispensary in Reno.

"I really didn’t care either way. I know how I feel about it, for getting into it all. It’s for helping my daughter," said Cashell-Mannikko.

Cashell-Mannikko, a stay-at-home mother of four daughters, said her eldest daughter has used cannabis to help her anxiety issues, and another daughter used it to help with epilepsy, a condition that causes seizures.

Her daughter missed two years of school because she was suffering from frequent grand mal seizures, which required her to travel out of state for treatment. She graduated from Reno High School alongside her sister in June and has been seizure-free for three years now.

"To be honest, we couldn’t actually use (cannabis) a lot because she was in the hospital and they couldn’t give it to her in the hospital, and we were at the point we had to stop the seizures. She had to take several medications," Cashell-Mannikko said.

Even though her dad, the former mayor, wasn't totally sold on the idea at first, he's been to the dispensary occasionally.

Cashell-Mannikko said she'd be lying if she said the family didn't also do it for the money.

"I honestly just went with my gut. We just really felt like it was worth it. We felt like – if it didn’t work out – we’d cross that bridge when we got to it," said Cashell-Mannikko, who took out a second mortgage on her home to invest in cannabis.

"My last name might be Cashell, but I don’t have the money. That’s why we took the chance," Cashell-Mannikko said.

Other notable Nevadans who have gambled on ganja include:

Former U.S. Ski Team member Kenneth Kuykendall, who co-owns NuLeaf dispensary in Incline Village

Jamal Keshmiri, who owns three strip clubs in Reno and is a co-owner of High Sierra Holistics

Renaissance developer Fernando Leal, who's been public about his investment, and co-owns Sierra Well.

If any of the names are evidence that times change, as do people, it's a name that's both local and national: Rogich.

Lori Rogich, wife of former presidential adviser Sig Rogich, has already been in the spotlight with her husband for the couple's somewhat surprising, early-on investment in the industry.

Sig Rogich, a UNR graduate, was a senior adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, who both championed the Just Say No campaign.

When Nevada voters considered outright legalization of pot in the early 2000s, Rogich told the Las Vegas Review Journal that with “the most liberal drug laws in the union, Las Vegas would become an ongoing Jay Leno joke.” He also told the newspaper that he smoked pot while attending UNR, but he didn't say how frequently.

Now Lori Rogich is listed as an officer for Deep Roots Wellness, which has cultivation, production and dispensary locations in Clark, Elko and Washoe Counties.

Durrett, who works with dozens of dispensaries, said that all in all she was not shocked by anyone's name on the list.

"I thought actually it was going to be more interesting," she said.

Jenny Kane covers arts and culture in Northern Nevada, as well as the dynamic relationship between the state and the growing Burning Man community. She also covers the state's burgeoning cannabis industry (Check out her podcast, the Potcast, on iTunes.) Support her work in Reno by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.