Canadian residents can legally purchase marijuana for medical use from the government, but the price is steep: Health Canada charges medical-marijuana users a 1,500-percent markup on the drug, the Canadian Press reported April 16.

The government health agency pays Prairie Plant Systems Inc. $328.75 per kilo for bulk medical marijuana; the plants are grown in an abandoned mine shaft in Flin Flon, Manitoba. But medical-marijuana users are charged $150 per 30-gram bag of the drug, which translates into $5,000 per kilo.

Critics charge that Health Canada is taking advantage of sick and poor residents.