Tan Ban Hysteria, Have We Gone Too Far? [VIDEO]

We've gotten carried away.

Patricia Krentcil, The tanning mom from Nutley, is having her case heard before a grand jury even though it seems impossible that she dragged her daughter into a tanning booth. The accusation had been that she put her 5 year old daughter into the booth with her, but it's been pointed out that the booth doesn't even appear big enough to accomplish such a thing. Furthermore, the owner of the tanning salon says the child remained in the lobby the entire time. The woman's been skewered on Jimmy Kimmel and all the late night show.  She's been parodied on SNL. We all had a good laugh at Patricia's expense, and she's even had an ugly past brought to light because of this incident regarding credit card theft, forgery and writing bad checks. Hasn't the woman paid enough of the price for something that sounds more and more like the misstated words of a 5 year old child to a teacher and less and less like any criminal act?

Then, there's the sad fact that all this hysteria fueled a renewed push for an outright ban of tanning for anyone under the age of 18 in the Garden State. They have used this tan mom case to breathe new life into this cause, which is ridiculous considering the tan mom case involved accusations of allowing a 5 year old to tan, something which is ALREADY illegal under the status quo. The current law allows anyone 18-years old and up to tan and anyone from ages 14 to 17-year olds to tan with parental consent. All this proposal does is take more rights away from parents to make decisions regarding their own children.

Take a look if you have the stomach for it at this shocking CNN video which shows a man who says 28 years of being an over the road trucker caused a severe difference to the left side of his face. Probably never spent a day in a tanning bed either. This was all from the sun's natural UV rays coming in through the driver's side window, which he always kept up by the way. Will lawmakers draft legislation limiting the minutes we can all spend outdoors next? The government has gotten so far involved into every aspect of our lives that I'm afraid it has forgotten its intended, limited purpose. And I'm starting to think we've forgotten too.