BlueCross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Offers Free Spanish-Language Video Series on Dangers of Fentanyl

BATON ROUGE, La. – Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana has created a series of educational videos to raise awareness and understanding of the inherent and often hidden dangers of illicit fentanyl. The videos have been dubbed in Spanish and are free for use.

“Our community, our country is experiencing a crisis,” said Kandyce Cowart, Blue Cross Special Investigations manager, in one of the videos. “We're not winning the war on drugs. We're losing the war on drugs. Every day, more and more people in our community and all across our entire country are dying from fentanyl poisonings.”

The original series with English videos launched last year at bcbsla.com/toorisky and has been widely shared, with more than 207,000 views on YouTube. The English series has had strong engagement from schools, churches, healthcare and law enforcement personnel and other community organizations looking for resources to educate people about the dangers of fentanyl.

Two of the videos tell the stories of two Baton Rouge area residents who died after overdosing on drugs laced with fentanyl. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic painkiller that is as much as 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Victoria’s and Alex’s journeys with drugs and addiction are told through powerful interviews with family members.

The third video describes the hidden dangers of opioids. In 2022, 210 people died in each day in the United States from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Fentanyl cannot be seen or smelled and may be found in non-opioid illicit drugs like marijuana or cocaine.

“Now we're seeing individuals die from fentanyl,” said East Baton Rouge Coroner Dr. Beau Clark in the video. “Their drug of choice was something like cocaine or methamphetamine or marijuana. And when they went to get their cocaine, methamphetamine or marijuana, it was adulterated with fentanyl. And, ultimately, they had an overdose and died.”

Find the Spanish “Fentanyl Kills” videos at es.bcbsla.com/demasiadoriesgo. Blue Cross, as part of our mission to improve the health and lives of Louisianians, encourages schools, youth groups, community organizations, workplaces, parents, teachers, leaders and anyone else interested to view these videos and share them with others.

Learn more about the dangers and stigmas of addiction, along with resources to help, in this episode of Conversando Francamente, which aired on Telemundo on March 9, 2024.

If you or someone you know is struggling with a substance use disorder, please know there is help out there. You can recover. Call 988 to be connected with services in your area.

Follow Blue Cross on social media @BCBSLA for more health tips and information. Blue Cross posts regularly on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. Visit the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana YouTube channel to see short health and wellness videos. Subscribe to know when new videos are added.