No Tea For You!

[Ovedya]

Manitoba jail bans tea after inmates use tea bags to make cigarettes

September 13, 2005

WINNIPEG (CP) - A Manitoba jail has stopped serving tea because some inmates were using tea bags to make cigarettes.

Smoking has been banned at the Headingley Correctional Centre near Winnipeg since November 2003, but that hasn't stopped some inmates from finding creative ways to get their fix. All they need is a dried-out tea bag and some nicotine chewing gum.

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

Jail officials were surprised inmates would go through the painstaking process to get a smoke, Sandney said, because it can take up to two days to make one cigarette.

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

The inmates' creativity already caused a stir earlier this year when officials discovered some were using the thin pages of Bibles to roll homemade cigarettes.

That prompted the jail to stop making the book widely available in living quarters. Inmates wanting a Bible must now ask for it from chaplains, who assess whether the Scripture will be read or burned.

[Guest Zayit]

The inmates' creativity already caused a stir earlier this year when officials discovered some were using the thin pages of Bibles to roll homemade cigarettes.

That prompted the jail to stop making the book widely available in living quarters. Inmates wanting a Bible must now ask for it from chaplains, who assess whether the Scripture will be read or burned.

How low can you go???

[Gerioke]

I remember smoking banana peels when I was a teenager, hard up for a buzz.

[Leonard]

I wonder why the media isn't raising a HUGE stink over this factual abuse of the Bible, like they did over the fake abuse of the Koran?

[chimoku]

LEONARD:

I wonder why the media isn't raising a HUGE stink over this factual abuse of the Bible, like they did over the fake abuse of the Koran?

Excellent point.

[Guest Zayit]

Send some Qurans in there and see what happens. Of course you have to pretend to be Isalmic because I don't think they smoke.

[jacob]

I have not understood why they would not let prisioners smoke ciggareetes at established places & times. After this I'm really puzzeled. It seems to me the whole sneaking around thing is of more detrament to thier spirit then the health concerns. Why they would use Bible pages for papers seems strange, thin paper would seem to be readily avalible without as much ink. Even toilet paper would be better.

Give the prisioner some type of duty or job that keeps his mind and hands from being idle should be the focus in my opinion after reading this, not taking away their tea & Bibles.

[Guest Zayit]

The article in the oP stated:

The inmates' creativity already caused a stir earlier this year when officials discovered some were using the thin pages of Bibles to roll homemade cigarettes.

I think Leonard was referring to that.

[Ovedya]

I have not understood why they would not let prisioners smoke ciggareetes at established places & times. After this I'm really puzzeled. It seems to me the whole sneaking around thing is of more detrament to thier spirit then the health concerns. Why they would use Bible pages for papers seems strange, thin paper would seem to be readily avalible without as much ink. Even toilet paper would be better.

Give the prisioner some type of duty or job that keeps his mind and hands from being idle should be the focus in my opinion after reading this, not taking away their tea & Bibles.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actaully Bible pages are not too dis-similar from regular rolling papers. Besides, you use what you have on-hand in desperae times, right. The main reason that prisons don't allow smoking is that they become bargaining chips for other things, such as contraband. They can also be used to smuggle contraband into the prison.

[Guest tge]

I wonder why the media isn't raising a HUGE stink over this factual abuse of the Bible, like they did over the fake abuse of the Koran?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

because we have to be tolerant of other people's beliefs...but Christianity doesnt count apparently... it's cool to hate the 'right-wing evangelical nuts'