Trulieve Opens Georgia’s First Medical Cannabis Dispensaries

This article was updated April 28, 2023.

After more than eight years since legalization, Georgia’s medical cannabis patients finally gained access to licensed products April 28 in Macon, about 70 miles south of Atlanta, and in Marietta, just north of Atlanta. At least three other retail facilities will open soon.

This program launch comes after the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission (GMCC) officially issued the state’s first five dispensary licenses—for two companies—at its public meeting April 26. Those licenses go to: Botanical Sciences LLC and Trulieve GA Inc. for retail facilities in Bibb, Chatham and Cobb counties. Trulieve GA is a subsidiary of Florida-based multistate operator Trulieve Cannabis Corp.

Trulieve announced the following day that it would host grand openings at 9:30 a.m. Friday in Macon and Marietta, where its dispensary will serve patients from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Trulieve plans to open three other dispensaries later this year in Columbus, Newnan and Pooler.

“We believe that access to medical cannabis improves lives, and Trulieve is proud to be the first to provide that access to the state of Georgia,” Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers said in a press release. “We look forward to providing high quality products and an elite experience.”

The commercial sales commencement comes after former Gov. Nathan Deal signed legislation in April 2015 that made Georgia the 26th state in the nation to legalize medical cannabis—at least to a certain extent. The state’s cannabis law restricts medical cannabis patients to accessing low-potency oil (capped at 5% THC) in oral or topical forms.

Since 2015, the low-THC oil registry in Georgia has grown from roughly 13,000 patients to more than 27,000, according to the GMCC. That number is expected to grow significantly as medical cannabis becomes more widely available.

“The dispensing licenses issued today are just the beginning,” GMCC Executive Director Andrew Turnage said in a commission press release. “As more dispensaries become licensed, more patients will be reached at locations throughout the state.”

Both Trulieve and Botanical are vertically integrated through Class I production licenses.

Under Georgia law, the GMCC can initially issue up to five dispensary licenses per production licensee. The commission can then issue a sixth retail license per production licensee when the state’s registry reaches 25,000 patients and an additional retail license per production company for every 10,000 patients added after that.

Botanical and Trulieve became Georgia’s first production licensees in September when the commission approved them to operate up to 100,000 square feet of indoor growing space.

State law authorizes the commission to issue up to six production licenses. After 69 applicants were submitted for those licenses, GMCC regulators tentatively named the six winners at their July 2021 meeting, but more than a dozen unsuccessful applicants filed protests, and the licensing contracts were never finalized.

As a result, litigation and court orders regarding the state’s licensing process had halted the state’s commercial sales launch—until now.

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