It was a mixture of alcohol and prescription drugs that killed two men in Watson Lake this past fall.

Gordon Stewart, 40, and Lyndon Johnny, 37, were found dead in early October. Alcohol bottles and prescription drug containers were discovered nearby.

An autopsy showed Stewart died from a mixed-drug overdose. He also had symptoms of hypothermia.

Stewart's blood alcohol level was .14. He had eight drugs in his system, three of which he did not have prescriptions for: morphine, the sedative diazapam and codeine.

Hanley isn't sure how Stewart acquired some of the drugs.

'But I've been told you can buy them on the street,' Sharon Hanley, the Yukon's chief coroner, said recentlly.

Johnny died from acute alcohol poisoning, with other drugs and hypothermia playing a role. His blood alcohol level was .30.

'It's quite a high level. Certainly at that point, a person would need medical attention,' said Hanley.

It is likely both men slowly slid into states of unconsciousness before dying, she said.

Both men were found in a wooded area about 100 metres off Stikine Avenue, in a spot where people often go to drink liquor.

The area is 150 metres away from Watson Lake's liquor store.

The men had been wearing blue jeans, shirts and jackets suited for fall weather.

Found with the two bodies were a seven-day dispenser for prescription drugs, an empty 750-ml sherry bottle and an empty 375-ml whisky bottle.

Hanley believes that both men likely didn't know they had injected a lethal level of drugs and alcohol, although she isn't familiar with the men's backgrounds.

In Hanley's experience, prescription drug overdoses like this are rare in the Yukon.