I’m pretty sick of this “It’s just how things are” crap.

“We’re supposed to have sex and show off. It’s just how things are.”

“We’re in college, kids drink. It’s just how things are.”

Just because that’s how it is doesn’t make it right.

Sitting in the shadows, allowing the negatives of our world to persist unchallenged? That’s apathy, and it needs to stop.

For example, a recent talking point I’ve heard revolves around the Anheuser-Busch “fan can” promotion, which recently ended — in our community, anyway. A student said, upon hearing of the promotion’s imminent end, he rushed to purchase $150 worth of Bud Light. He then pointed to his behavior as a negative consequence of the end of the “fan can” promotion. Reflect on that.

Negative behavior caused not by the promotion, but the ending of the promotion. And the example behavior was this person’s own.

That’s like saying, “Mom took away my cookies, so I ate all of them before she could take them. See how naughty I am?”

I get the point. I get that trying to stand against college drinking seems futile or silly. But it’s not funny.

According to The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, 49 percent of full-time college students abuse controlled substances. This includes alcohol via binge drinking, the largest contributor to the statistic.

In 2005, approximately 22.9 percent met the medical criteria for substance dependence. This 22.9 percent is almost three times higher than the rate of dependence within the general population, which is estimated at 8.5 percent.

College students drink. But that is not the whole picture. To understand the true problem, we have to understand our culture, with its prolific use of alcohol, and that culture’s effect on us, which is precisely what researchers at Dartmouth Medical School attempted from 2004 to 2006.

They found an increase of 14.8 percent in young adults who frequently viewed positive portrayals of alcohol in popular movies.

More shocking was the pure amount of alcohol use:

Out of a random pool of 601 then-contemporary titles, 92 percent depicted alcohol use. The results showed such depictions of alcohol were present in 95 percent of R-rated films, 93 percent for PG-13, 89 percent for PG, and a disturbing 52 percent in G-rated films.

The more people tell you that drinking is good, cool, normal — and worst of all, expected — of college experiences, the more likely one is to take up the hobby. The more likely people are to take up drinking, the more likely they are to abuse it. This risk for abuse increases as age decreases, with most significant jumps at ages 14–16 and 17–20. Seventeen to 20. Sound familiar?

It should. It’s 56 percent of our undergraduate classmates, according to data from the Office of the Registrar.

With all the information about drinking among college students, its risks and increase in said risks associated with age, is it any surprise the number of citizens, students, faculty and officials alike who saw a problem with the “fan cans?”

The cans, despite claims to the contrary, were and are aimed at college students, most of whom are underage. It’s illogical to say the promotion isn’t aimed at underage drinkers when such a large portion fans sought by business are under 21. It is, and that is dangerous marketing.

Tomorrow is our first football game of the season, and that means parties of every variety. Have fun and support the team, but do so responsibly and legally. Don’t rely on alcohol to show shool pride. We’re better than that.

As someone who has two hard lemonades left from a six-pack bought three months ago, I supprot the university’s actions against the “fan cans,” and I sense the majority of the student body agrees. There’s more to college than drinking. When someone boasts that it’s simply “how things are,” respond: It doesn’t have to be.

Sophie Prell is a senior in pre-journalism and mass communication from Alta.