Opponents of marijuana legalization in Oregon kicked off their campaign Monday standing next to an array of gummy bears, sugary cereal, chocolate bars and other products that Colorado retailers lace with marijuana and sell over the counter.

"I don't want my kids to grow up in a place where this is normal," said Mandi Puckett, director of the No on 91 campaign, looking disdainfully at a display of such products as "CannaPunch" and a balm called "Lip Bliss."

Puckett and other opponents argued that their biggest worry with legalized marijuana is that it will eventually be heavily marketed and turned into a product as mainstream as a cold beer on a hot day.

"The marijuana industry wants us to believe that marijuana gummy bears and fruit punch are not targeting children," said Bob Doyle, a tobacco prevention expert from Colorado who has been active in an anti-marijuana group there.

"Are we really going to go in this direction again?," Doyle added, referring to the long fight with the tobacco industry over marketing practices aimed at hooking young consumers. He brought the packages of pot products from Colorado but pointedly noted that the actual marijuana-laced materials had been discarded.

Anthony Johnson, the chief sponsor of the Oregon marijuana initiative, said opponents are wrong in thinking that illegal pot isn't already being heavily marketed.

"Big marijuana is already here in Oregon and it's called drug cartels," said Johnson. "Measure 91 brings in strict controls and takes it away from the cartels."

Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana in 2012, with Colorado the first to allow retail sales. And much of the attention there has been focused not just on rolled joints but on a wide variety of marijuana-laced cookies, candy bars, lollipops and beverages.

After some well-publicized cases involving accidental overdoses -- including a 19-year-old who jumped to his death after eating a pot-infused cookie – the state is moving to more tightly regulate so-called edibles.

The Oregon measure, Johnson said, gives the Oregon Liquor Control Commission plenty of authority to regulate the packaging of edible products, both to limit their attractiveness to youths and to ensure they are tested and labeled so consumers have a better of just what they are buying.

Opponents, however, say the Oregon measure is too lax in how much it allows consumers to legally possess.

Under Measure 91, adults could legally possess up to 8 ounces of dried marijuana, four plants, 1 pound of solid edible products, 72 ounces of liquid pot products and an ounce of hashish.

"This is an appalling amount," said Puckett at a press conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Lake Oswego. "Where is this much marijuana going to go? It's going to go into our kids' hands."

Washington and Colorado allow adults to possess 1 ounce of marijuana. Washington doesn't allow consumers to grow marijuana at home while Colorado allows up to six plants, only three of which can be mature. And users there can keep all of the marijuana they've cultivated.

Johnson said Oregon's limits on marijuana products were patterned after Colorado's limits. He said they were designed to give "hobbyists some reasonable cultivation limits at home."

People who buy their marijuana from a retailer – which studies suggest would be the vast majority of users – will not have nearly as much marijuana on hand, Johnson argued. He said they'll likely buy smokable pot by the gram and edibles by the ounce.

Doyle, the Colorado anti-marijuana activist, said he's not buying the talk of tight regulation of legal markets. He noted that a new poll of Colorado voters now shows that a slight majority opposes legalization of the drug.

"We are the poster child of why states should not legalize commercial marijuana," said Doyle, arguing that voters have been turned off by the rapid spread of marijuana retail outlets and the wide array of colorful products.

-- Jeff Mapes