Natchez woman wants to open state’s first marijuana bakery

NATCHEZ — Ginny Ransom-Gonzalez wants to open a business in Adams County baking marijuana cookies and potentially other marijuana edibles.

She presented her plan Monday to the Adams County Board of Supervisors, which agreed to take her plans under advisement.

Ransom-Gonzales is a Natchez native. She has spent much of her adult life in California but has returned frequently to care for her ill mother.

Following her mother’s death, Ransom-Gonzales came into possession of her family’s property on Starnes Road, where she grew up and where her parents, Barbara and George Ransom, operated a snack food distribution business for many years, she said.

That property includes a warehouse used for her late parents’ business, which she said she would use to house her marijuana bakery business.

“I first have to get the OK from the county,” Ransom-Gonzales said. “I have the property, I have the money. Now I need the OK from the county.”

After receiving the county’s permission, she said she would then apply for a license from the Mississippi State Department of Health, which oversees all aspects of medical marijuana in Mississippi.

“I went to the Mississippi cannabis convention in May and learned there are no marijuana bakeries in Mississippi,” Ransom-Gonzales said. “They make gummies here, but no bakeries.”

Ransom-Gonzales was widowed in February 2021, when her husband, Tomas Gonzales, died of cancer. She said he suffered and sought treatment for years, until enrolling in hospice.

Hospice care staffers gave Gonzales morphine for pain, but he had an allergic reaction to it, she said.

“Tomas did not want morphine. Instead, he wanted to be clear-headed,” Ransom-Gonzales said. She said she sought an alternative for his excruciating pain at a medical marijuana dispensary.

“Tomas nibbled the cookies for pain for two months. Only for the two days before his died did Tomas ask for and get morphine,” she said. “During the two months that Tomas nibbled cookies, our friends came over. We played guitars and sang. We played cards. We had dinner parties. There were lots of laughs.

“Tomas and I became closer. He told me about his hopes and dreams, including his hopes and dreams for me. We would have been robbed of two months of fun had Tomas taken morphine, instead of nibbling marijuana cookies for cancer pain,” Ransom-Gonzales said.

She said no children, churches or schools are in the vicinity of her property and warehouse. She said marijuana for her bakery products would come from only licenses Mississippi growers. Her bakery would not sell any marijuana or marijuana products directly to residents.

“I will only sell products to licenses Mississippi marijuana dispensaries,” she said.

Board President Warren Gaines said supervisors will take her request under advisement and that County Attorney Scott Slover would contact her after looking into the legalities and requirements of the county about her request.