Marijuana legalization has stalled in Mexico, but farmers and cartels are still making big plans to profit off a new market

• An effort to legalize marijuana in Mexico has stalled after several years of debate by lawmakers.
• But Mexican cartels and independent growers are still preparing to cater to a new domestic market.
• The Sinaloa Cartel in particular is drawing business lessons from marijuana dispensaries in the US.

Badiraguato, Sinaloa — Every day at 5 a.m. Margarita, a 51-year-old farmer, jumps out of bed and lights a candle to St. Judas, a saint believed to listen to lost or almost impossible causes.

Only after that, Margarita steps out to her front yard and looks over her marijuana plants, which are covered with a camouflage-shaded cloth.