The Yukon has some of the highest rates of alcohol and tobacco use in Canada, says the Yukon’s top doctor.

That’s why he made substance use the focus of his tri-annual report on the state of health in the territory.

Dr. Brendan Hanley, the Yukon’s chief medical officer, released the Yukon Health Status Report, 2015, on Wednesday.

In it, he says that addressing social problems, improving access to residential treatment, and supporting individuals, families and communities through counseling and programming are key to preventing substance use.

“Whenever we come across statistics about tobacco and alcohol use, Yukon is among the top few jurisdictions in terms of rates of usage,” Hanley told the Star this morning.

“The fact that we’re often leading the pack or that we’re at the top of the pack is a red flag.”

So many factors beyond a person’s control can push that person to use drugs, says the report.

Neglect by parents, abuse in childhood, poverty, food insecurity and homelessness can put a person at greater risk of developing substance use problems and addiction.

Hanley said 46 per cent of Yukoners reported having been harmed by someone close to them who was using alcohol or drugs.

“This is an issue that affects us all, it’s not just a few marginalized people,” he said.

The report looks at substance use and addiction through different stages of life, from pregnancy, through childhood and young adulthood, to adulthood and old age.

For example, tobacco and alcohol use is more popular among Yukon youth than with young people the same age elsewhere in Canada.

In the Yukon, 14.8 per cent of young people ages 12 to 19 smoke daily or on occasion, compared to 8.3 per cent of youth across Canada.

The report notes that 8.4 per cent of students in Grades 6 to 8, and 27.8 per cent of students in Grades 9 and 10, said they had been “really drunk” at least once.

Rates of alcohol use are higher among rural youth, than kids in Whitehorse, according to the report.

The rate of smoking for adults is higher in the Yukon than in the provinces but lower than in the other two territories.

More than a quarter of Yukoners 20 years of age and older reported smoking every day or on occasion in 2013-14, compared to one fifth of Canadians the same age.

Yukon adults also drink more often, and more at once, than most Canadians.

More than 30 per cent of people aged 20 and older reported heavy drinking at least once a month, where as one fifth of Canadians reported the same.

Heavy drinking is defined for men as consuming five drinks in a sitting, or over the course of a night, and for women, it’s four drinks.

Alcohol is responsible for so many public health problems, said Hanley.

“Whether we’re talking about mental health, chronic diseases, injury rates, or access to residential treatment and emergency room visits.”

Moderate drinking over the course of a lifetime too, carries risks, he said, adding that people may not be aware of the link between alcohol and cancer.

The report also points to areas where information on health in the territory is lacking.

Namely, there are no data on rates of drug use among pregnant women in the Yukon, nor on the prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder the territory.

Hanley’s report also takes stock of the Yukon First Nations perspective.

First Nations have much to teach us about understanding and treating substance abuse, says Hanley.

Horrible abuses suffered in residential schools, family ties that were broken when children were taken away from their parents, losses of language and culture, and ongoing institutional racism traumatized generations of people. The trauma is passed down to the children and grandchildren of survivors and their families.

“That First Nations people have survived this experience at all as a culture—let alone progressed on a forward path of self-government, regaining cultural identity, language, traditional practices in healing, and living close to the land—is a testament to their strength as a people,” says the report.

“Healing is a long, gradual and multigenerational process that must occur at both the community and the individual level.”

We can learn from First Nations’ holistic approach to treatment, he said.

“We have a very prosperous population, a highly educated population, but we have at the same time a polarity between the majority who have and a minority who have not,” he said.

“Harmful substance use is not someone else’s problem, it’s a problem that we all need to own.”