Although edible marijuana products won’t be legal for a year, Canadians have already seen their dangerous impact on children when misused or not safely stored out of their reach.

In early October, a young child from Vancouver Island was hospitalized for ingesting a marijuana-infused gummy bear that she found in the back seat of a vehicle. Innocently, she consumed what appeared to be candy and had to be rushed to the hospital for medical treatment. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.

While edibles are scheduled to become legal next year, they already pose a great risk to children. Marijuana-infused edibles disguised as candy to an innocent child, if consumed, is not a harmless trick, but a real threat to their health and safety. When marijuana edibles are readily available in the form of chocolate and candy, it will become increasingly difficult to protect our children from ingesting them.

From the beginning, my fellow Conservative Senate colleagues and I have felt that the legalization of marijuana in Canada was a rushed process, driven by industry and profit rather than supposed health-related imperatives. Otherwise, why would the government ignore the advice of other jurisdictions (who learned from their mistakes) to not rush legalization, and overlook the compelling testimonies of health professionals in Canada and the U.S. citing the harmful effects on children and youth? The Children’s Hospital in Colorado stated: “The most common overdose incidents in children occur when the drug has been combined with food in an ‘edible’ form of marijuana. This is because marijuana ingested in this manner can have a stronger and prolonged effect, especially in children under the age of 12.”

Is it not the first priority of any government to safeguard the health of children and youth rather than rush legislation based on economic objectives? Educational campaigns should have been planned and rolled out well in advance of legalization, but it didn’t happened. Regulations are still being drafted and there is uncertainty at every level.

I continue to be concerned about the harmful and irreversible effects of legalization of cannabis. We are not ready as a country for this. I don’t think the world is ready either for Canada to be only the second country (after Uruguay) to legalize marijuana. We heard from experts in various fields, specifically health experts, who warned Canada against rushing into full legalization. But proponents and this Liberal government argued we will learn from our mistakes. One of them even said, “You can learn a lot from a train wreck.” What a terrifying analogy. I do not want our children and youth to be the guinea pigs of a harmful experiment — this potential train wreck in the making.

I reject the arguments, especially concerning the economic benefits of a legalized regime, which have led to government-licensed pot shops and online stores having higher-than-expected sales and certain strains on back-order within days of legalization. I don’t care about the rising stock prices and how much money weed is generating. No amount of money can justify putting our children and youth in harm’s way.

Their lives are worth more than all the money in the world.