B.C.’s former health minister who now is in the cannabis industry has some issues with the proposed rules on edibles.

Terry Lake, also a former mayor and MLA in Kamloops who now works with Hexo, says the proposed regulations announced by the federal government yesterday paint cannabis with an unfair brush.

“The way these rules are written are more sort of a tobacco lens. And when you look at the relative harms of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis… cannabis is actually quite far behind in third place of those three,” Lake says.

The regulations propose to include a hard cap on the amount of THC in edibles, the psychoactive part of the drug, as well as to restrict certain ingredients from being in edibles including alcohol.

All packaging would also display the standard cannabis symbol with a health warning message.

“The rules are designed to make sure that no one thinks consuming cannabis is a good thing, or could be enjoyable or could be in fact good for you, unfortunately,” Lake says.

“We knew it would be like this, it’s very conservative. Hopefully over time as the government and the public get used to cannabis – responsible use of cannabis and the stigma comes down and some of the fear goes away – that maybe these rules will lighten up.”

He adds though he agrees with some parts of the proposed rules, including labeling that makes edibles less attractive to children.

Cannabis edibles are expected to be legalized in Canada next fall.