I have a good friend who owns a mom and pop video store in Brooklyn, NY. The Smoke Nazis (i.e., city inspectors) paid him a visit last week. He was cited for not having a "No Smoking" sign prominently displayed (everyone in NY knows there is no smoking in retail stores), for not having issued a policy statement to his employees that "smoking is bad for you, blah , blah, blah," and, my favorite, for "Possession of an Ash Tray." That's right folks, in NYC, you are not allowed to have an ash tray in a retail store because, by golly, that could encourage smoking. The ash tray is there, he explained, in case somebody (perhaps from the wilds of Indiana) came into the store with a lit cigarette, and needed a place to extinguish it when told of the rules. The fines and penalties run into the hundreds of dollars. Welcome to the Nanny State.
ashtray link