Yukon now has the highest rate of deaths due to opioids in the country, at 48.4 deaths per 100,000 people, according to CBC Canada. Yukon has recorded 21 deaths due to opioids since the start of the year.

"For this office, and most certainly all of us, this is shocking," Heather Jones, Chief Coroner for the territory, said Monday. "This must be seen as a medical crisis. These deaths for the most part are people who are dying alone in their homes."

All of the deaths involved opioids in various formats of fentanyl, and many also involved cocaine.

Chief Doris Bill of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation said she doesn't just consider the opioid problem in the territory as a crisis, but rather "a full-blown emergency" at this point.

Yukon has been struggling with the crisis since 2016, with everyone from teenagers to elders dying, Jones said.