To a child on the prowl for sweets, that brownie, cookie or bear-shaped candy left on the kitchen counter is just asking to be gobbled up. But in states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use, notably Colorado, that child may end up with more than a sugar high.

A study published on Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics says that in Colorado the rates of marijuana exposure in young children, many of them toddlers, have increased 150 percent since 2014, when recreational marijuana products, like sweets, went on the market legally.

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“The study is not an argument for or against legalization,” said Robert J. MacCoun, a professor at Stanford Law School who writes about drug policy. “But it’s an argument for smart regulation,” he said, noting that many products are packaged not only in bright, alluring colors, but also in highly variable doses.