Cannabis in Macon Georgia — First Trulieve Dispensary, Allen Peake’s Home District

Last verified: May 2026

The Geographic and Symbolic Center of Georgia Cannabis

Macon, the seat of Bibb County, is the geographic center of Georgia (~155,000 residents in the consolidated city-county). Macon’s relationship to Georgia’s medical-cannabis story is foundational:

• Rep. Allen Peake (R-Macon) — CPA, restaurant-franchise CEO, conservative Republican — was the primary sponsor of HB 1 / Haleigh’s Hope Act in 2015 and the public face of medical-cannabis advocacy in Georgia from 2014 through his 2018 retirement.
• Peake later told NBC News he ran what he called an "underground" cannabis-oil distribution network from his Macon office, accepting boxes of oil from anonymous donors and distributing them to registered families during the 2015–2019 in-state-production gap.
• Trulieve’s first Georgia dispensary opened in Macon on April 28, 2023 — the state’s first legal in-state sale, eight years and twelve days after HB 1 was signed by Gov. Deal.

The 2019 Macon-Bibb County Ordinance

Macon-Bibb County’s 2019 ordinance set sub-ounce fines for possession at $75 within Macon-Bibb city limits, modeled on Atlanta’s 2017 ordinance. State law preempts; Georgia State Patrol and Bibb County sheriff’s deputies retain charging authority under O.C.G.A. § 16-13-2(b). See city-ordinances page.

The Trulieve Dispensary

Trulieve cut the ribbon on the Macon dispensary on the afternoon of April 28, 2023. CEO Kim Rivers called it "the first" of what would become five Georgia retail locations. The Macon location remains a high-volume dispensary serving central Georgia’s Bibb, Houston, Peach, Crawford, and surrounding counties.

Mercer University and Macon’s Education Sector

Mercer University, a private research university, is headquartered in Macon with ~9,000 students. Mercer applies its own drug-and-alcohol policies on campus; cannabis use on campus is prohibited regardless of state or local status.

Allen Peake’s Legacy

Peake retired from the General Assembly in 2018 after concluding his work on Haleigh’s Hope Act and serving alongside Rep. Micah Gravley on the architectural framework that became HB 324 / Georgia’s Hope Act of 2019. Peake’s "underground" cannabis-oil network is one of the more remarkable pieces of recent state-legislator activism in U.S. cannabis policy — a Republican legislator publicly acknowledging he was distributing federally illegal product to constituent patient families. His successor Macon-area legislators have not pursued cannabis-policy issues with the same prominence.

FFD GA Holdings (Fine Fettle) Macon HQ

FFD GA Holdings LLC, doing business as Fine Fettle, is headquartered in Macon. FFD GA holds Class 2 cultivation license C2PRO001, issued November 15, 2023. The company operates retail locations in Smyrna, Athens, Decatur, and other Atlanta-metro areas.

Cultural Anchors

• Otis Redding Museum — Macon is the birthplace and home of soul-music legend Otis Redding (1941–1967).
• Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House — the band lived in Macon during the early 1970s.
• Capricorn Records heritage — Macon’s 1970s Southern-rock recording scene.
• Macon Music Festival annual events.

Practical Patient Notes

• Combined state + local sales tax in Macon-Bibb runs ~8.0% at retail.
• Within Macon-Bibb, sub-ounce charging is $75 max under the 2019 ordinance — but state-level charging remains available.
• Trulieve Macon is the principal central-Georgia medical-cannabis access point.
• Robins Air Force Base (Warner Robins, ~20 miles south of Macon) is the largest single-site industrial complex in Georgia, with ~24,000 workforce. See federal-installations page.