The Yukon is set to celebrate its second year without a murder, providing nobody is killed between now and midnight on New Year's Eve, police say.
There were no murders in 2005 and have been none so far in 2006. That's in stark contrast to 2004, when seven people were killed in a territory of 31,000.
Whitehorse RCMP Sgt. Roger Lockwood says a crackdown on the use of illegal drugs may be paying off.
"The communities in the Yukon are generally a safe place to live, but we do see influences from the south," Lockwood told CBC News on Thursday.
"Drugs are being seized."
In the past year, suspected drug dealers from nearly every Yukon community have been arrested, he said.
Police plan to continue to target drug dealers and street crime in 2007, he said.
Crown prosecutor David McWhinnie says there seems to be less violence in the territory but he's not sure why.
The number of days needed for circuit court in some communities has decreased, he said.
But drug addiction continues to be a problem, he said.
"People who had a house in the burbs, two children, two SUVs, a good job each of them, to then get drawn into, especially, the crack and cocaine culture, it is something that completely baffles me. More than a few of them have lost everything," McWhinnie said.
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