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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The combination of alcohol and frigid temperatures nearly killed someone else close to Berna Martin.

On Sunday morning, after a day of worry, Martin said she learned her daughter's niece, had passed out in the bitter cold the previous morning. The teenager sustained frostbite but nothing worse.

A 13-year-old girl was found unconscious and highly intoxicated in the alley between 49th and 50th street Monday evening. Two such incidents involving teens and alcohol in the past week have some wondering what is being done to educate young people about the potential dangers of drinking. - NNSL photo illustration

"Only then, I was relieved," Martin said.

In two instances last week, teenage girls got drunk and passed out outside. That has left some wondering what is being done to educate young people on the dangers of drinking.

On Saturday morning, Martin's daughter's niece passed out outside a Ndilo apartment after being locked out following a night of drinking with friends.

Fortunately the girl woke up, said Martin, but she could not feel her feet. She made it to a relative's apartment and was taken to hospital.

Martin said the girl suffered frostbite. She didn't know how long the girl had been outside.

"Apparently, nobody knows," she said. "Her friends probably went home. She was lucky she woke up."

According to Environment Canada, the temperature was -35 C Saturday morning, with a wind chill of -49 C at 6 a.m.

Martin said someone in the community she was close to died years ago when she fell asleep outside after consuming alcohol. Martin noted that incident took place in the spring, nowhere near as cold as it was Saturday.

In a separate incident on Monday, a 13-year-old girl was found unconscious behind the SideDoor Youth Centre around 11 p.m. She was brought to Stanton hospital.

RCMP Const. Kathy Law said she did not know how long the teenager was outside or how warmly she was dressed but said she "was very intoxicated."

The girl spent the night at the hospital, Law said, likely due to her high level of intoxication.

Garth Eggenberger, chief coroner of the NWT, said since 2005, there have been nine cold exposure deaths throughout the territory where alcohol was a contributing factor.

He said alcohol makes people more prone to exposure, as it dilutes blood vessels and people give off more heat.

They feel hotter and start taking off clothes, he said.

Martin said young people are not being careful, and are overindulging in alcohol.

"They overdo it," she said.

"They don't watch out for each other."

She sees this as a problem in the North and said there needs to be a concerted effort to reach out to kids and talk about the dangers of alcohol.

"There needs to be a campaign in the schools, an awareness for kids," she said.

"If people aren't doing anything, it's going to get worse not better."

Spencer Heslep, program co-ordinator with the SideDoor Youth Centre, spends his days with young adults and said alcohol abuse among youth is definitely a problem. He said last year was worse, however.

"Last year, I think I saw about double the blackouts," he said.

Heslep said the centre offers an addictions program specifically tailored to teens every Thursday night, and regularly has Byrne Richards - a drugs and alcohol counsellor at the Tree of Peace - in to talk to kids.

Law said RCMP go into schools, partnering with the Tree of Peace, to speak to students as young as Grade 6 about tobacco, drugs and alcohol use.

"I think we just want to be more proactive than reactive," she said.

"If we gear it a little bit earlier than the time they would start drinking then hopefully it will help them make wiser choices."

Heslep said in today's society, where parents are tied up longer and longer outside the home, they don't spend enough time with their kids and communication lines are breaking down.

"The bottom line is the people who spend the most time with the youth have the opportunity to influence them the most.

"You are finding that kids are being raised by other kids. The blind are leading the blind, as it will."