Inmates at Canada's Headingley Correctional Center are no longer allowed to have tea after jail officials discovered they were using the bags to make cigarettes.

Smoking was banned at the facility two years ago.

To make a "tea bag cigarette," inmates use a dried-out tea bag and some nicotine chewing gum.

Says jail superintendent Cathy Sandney, "The gum is boiled and there's a nicotine residue that's removed and dried and then sprinkled on the re-dried tea bag leaves, and then rolled."

According to Sandney, it's quite an effort for one smoke, taking up to two days to make just one cigarette.

The jail, which banned smoking in November 2003, stopped serving tea last week, but is looking at offering instant tea - which has no bags.