Texas Regulator Awards Verano Conditional License to Operate in State’s Medical Cannabis Market

AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Public Safety has issued a conditional license to Verano Texas, LLC, a subsidiary of Verano Holdings Corp., paving the way for the MSO to pursue cultivation, processing, and retail sales of medical Cannabis products across the state. This move comes as part of a broader effort to scale up the Texas Compassionate Use Program (TCUP), which has served a limited number of patients since its inception in 2015.

Under the program’s expansion, authorized by House Bill 46 earlier this year, regulators selected nine companies for preliminary approval in the Phase I, with Verano assigned to Public Health Region 10, encompassing the El Paso area. The full list includes:

• Trulieve TX, Inc. for Region 1 in the Panhandle,
• Texas Patient Access, LLC, and Lonestar Compassionate Care Group, LLC, both for Region 3 in North Texas,
• Lone Star Bioscience, Inc. for Region 8 in the Permian Basin,
• PC TX OPCO LLC, operating as PharmaCann, and Story of Texas, LLC, for Region 6 in Central Texas,
• Texa OP, doing business as TexaRx, for Region 11 in the Rio Grande Valley, and
• Dilatso, LLC for Region 2 in the Gulf Coast.

Three additional licenses are slated for award by April 2026.

These approvals remain provisional. Companies must clear further reviews on financial stability, legal records, and compliance before full authorization, and none can begin operations in the interim. For Verano, a Chicago-based company with 158 dispensaries and 15 cultivation and production facilities in 13 states, the nod represents a calculated push into one of the nation’s largest untapped medical Cannabis markets, where patient enrollment has grown steadily but remains capped at around 50 qualifying conditions.

George Archos, Verano’s founder and CEO, called the development a “significant step forward” for regulated Cannabis nationwide. “Building on our medical Cannabis roots and deep experience across the country, we look forward to […] providing safe, high-quality, Texas-grown Cannabis for patients statewide, while creating jobs and economic opportunities that support America’s next great industry in the Lone Star State,” Archos said in a statement.

Verano, which reported $620 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2025 across its retail locations, has prioritized medical Cannabis markets as a foundation for growth, including recent expansions in Florida and New Jersey. Analysts view Texas as a high-reward opportunity given its 31 million residents and the projected growth of the medical Cannabis program under House Bill 46 set to serve 123,308 patients and counting by September 2025. Yet the program’s low-THC restrictions [now capping products at 10 mg of THC per dosage unit and 1,000 mg per package under House Bill 46] could constrain product variety compared to Verano’s offerings elsewhere, potentially requiring adjustments to its lineup of flower, edibles, and concentrates.

Verano’s bid for Texas aligns with its strategy of targeting regions with clear regulatory paths and demographic scale. Success here could bolster margins through in-house production, reducing reliance on third-party suppliers, a common pain point in nascent markets. Still, final approvals stretch into early 2026, leaving room for shifts if due diligence uncovers issues.