Verano & Zen Leaf in West Virginia — Charleston, Morgantown, Wheeling, Clarksburg

Last verified: May 2026

Verano Holdings Corp. — The Chicago MSO

Verano Holdings Corp. is a publicly-traded multi-state cannabis operator headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 2014 by George Archos (Chief Executive Officer) and partners. Verano trades on Cboe Canada under ticker VRNO and on the OTCQX U.S. market under ticker VRNOF. The company operates across approximately 13 U.S. states, including Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Arizona, Nevada, New York, Virginia (medical), and West Virginia. Verano is among the top-five U.S. cannabis MSOs by retail count and by revenue. The company’s consumer-facing retail brand is Zen Leaf; its product brands include MUV, Encore, Avexia, and Savvy. See WV operators page.

Verano Zen Leaf Charleston — January 2, 2026 Opening

Verano’s flagship West Virginia retail location opened at 117 Summers Street in downtown Charleston (Kanawha County, the state capital) on January 2, 2026. Summers Street is a downtown Charleston commercial corridor a short walk from the State Capitol Complex on Kanawha Boulevard, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, the Town Center Mall, and the Robert C. Byrd Federal Building. The 117 Summers Street location made Zen Leaf the first MSO-branded dispensary inside the downtown Charleston commercial core. The site sits within the West Virginia Capitol Market / Town Center retail catchment and is accessible from I-64, I-77, and U.S. 60 / Kanawha Boulevard. See Charleston page.

Zen Leaf Morgantown / Westover, Wheeling, Clarksburg

In addition to the Charleston flagship, Verano operates Zen Leaf-branded dispensaries across additional West Virginia regions:

• Zen Leaf Morgantown (proper) — in the Mon County WVU university-town market
• Zen Leaf Westover — on the west side of the Monongahela River across from Morgantown, off I-79 / U.S. 19
• Zen Leaf Wheeling — in Ohio County in the Northern Panhandle, on the I-70 / Ohio River corridor across from Belmont County, OH
• Zen Leaf Clarksburg — in Harrison County, on I-79 in north-central West Virginia
• Verano Vienna cultivation/processing site — reported industrial footprint in Wood County, Vienna (suburban Parkersburg), supplying Verano’s WV retail network

The combination of the Charleston flagship, two Mon County retail points (Morgantown and Westover), the Northern Panhandle anchor in Wheeling, the I-79 mid-state location in Clarksburg, and the Vienna cultivation/processing footprint gives Verano statewide retail and supply coverage across the WV medical-cannabis market.

The WV Statutory License Cap — SB 386 Architecture

West Virginia’s medical-cannabis program operates under statutory caps established by SB 386 (2017) and amended by SB 1037 (2019):

• 10 grower licenses — the cultivation tier
• 10 processor licenses — the manufacturing/extraction tier
• ~100 dispensary licenses (originally 30, expanded to 100 by SB 1037 in 2019)
• 10-dispensary cap per operator — no single permittee may hold more than 10 of the dispensary licenses
• Vertical integration permitted under SB 1037 (a single operator may hold grower, processor, and dispensary permits)

Verano’s WV portfolio operates within this statutory architecture. The 10-dispensary-per-operator cap is the principal limit on Verano’s growth ceiling in the Mountain State. See growers / processors page; see SB 386 enactment page.

Verano vs. Trulieve vs. Curaleaf-Coastal — The Three-MSO Map

The Mountain State’s MSO landscape is dominated by three out-of-state public-company operators:

• Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (NASDAQ: TCNNF; CSE: TRUL; Tallahassee HQ) — holds 9 of 10 permitted dispensaries; 100,000-sq-ft Huntington cultivation/processing campus; the dispensary-count and cultivation-scale leader. Opened West Virginia’s first dispensary at 1397 Earl Core Rd, Sabraton (Morgantown) on November 12, 2021.
• Verano Holdings Corp. (Cboe Canada: VRNO; OTCQX: VRNOF; Chicago HQ) — operates Zen Leaf-branded dispensaries; Charleston flagship at 117 Summers Street opened January 2, 2026; statewide retail footprint plus reported Vienna cultivation/processing.
• Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (Cboe Canada: CURA; OTCQX: CURLF; Wakefield, Massachusetts HQ) — operates the Coastal Retail brand in West Virginia, including a Huntington dispensary and additional locations.

Each MSO brings significant supply-chain advantages over single-state operators: capital depth, multi-state product-development capacity, branded-product portfolios, federal-litigation resources, and operational scale. The trade-off is that Mountain State retail dollars flow to out-of-state corporate headquarters rather than to in-state operators. See Trulieve page.

Mountaineer Holding, New Leaf, Healing Center, Country Grown, Cannabist

The remainder of the West Virginia operator landscape includes a mix of in-state and out-of-state names:

• Mountaineer Holding LLC — WV-affiliated operator
• New Leaf — WV dispensary brand
• Healing Center — WV dispensary brand
• Country Grown (Harvest Care Medical) — the largest WV-based vertically-integrated operator, ~9 dispensaries
• Cannabist (Columbia Care, now under Cresco Labs) — MSO with WV presence

Verano’s portfolio sits among the largest in this landscape. The competitive dynamic between Verano (Zen Leaf), Trulieve, Coastal Retail (Curaleaf), and Country Grown (Harvest Care) is the principal commercial story of the West Virginia medical-cannabis program. See Country Grown page; see WV operators page.

Verano’s 13-State Footprint — The MSO Scale Argument

Verano operates across approximately 13 U.S. states. The MSO scale argument for Verano in West Virginia tracks its argument in other markets: capital availability for build-out, multi-state branded product distribution (MUV, Encore, Avexia), shared compliance and quality-control infrastructure, and the ability to invest in West Virginia despite federal Schedule I banking and tax constraints (IRC § 280E denies normal business deductions). The Charleston flagship at 117 Summers Street, opened January 2, 2026, signals continued Verano commitment to West Virginia in a period when several MSOs have rationalized their state portfolios. See dispensaries overview.

Cannabis Reality — The Verano / Zen Leaf WV Snapshot

• Verano Holdings Corp. — Cboe Canada: VRNO; OTCQX: VRNOF; Chicago HQ; ~13-state operator
• Zen Leaf Charleston — 117 Summers Street, opened January 2, 2026
• Additional Zen Leaf locations — Morgantown (proper) and Westover, Wheeling, Clarksburg
• Vienna site — reported Verano cultivation/processing footprint in Wood County
• 10-dispensary cap — the per-operator statutory ceiling under SB 386 / SB 1037
• Three-MSO map — Verano (Zen Leaf) + Trulieve + Curaleaf-Coastal dominate the WV retail landscape