CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - The opioid epidemic has claimed too many lives—and for many, it starts with something as routine as a prescription after surgery or injury.

In Iowa, however, a growing movement is working to stop addiction before it starts.

Rod and Deb Courtney, an Iowa couple, lost their son Chad after a long battle with addiction that began when he was a teenager.

What started as alcohol and marijuana use escalated over 24 years to heroin—and ultimately fentanyl.

His decline began again after a workplace injury, when a doctor prescribed him opioids for pain.

“We had concerns. We asked him if this was a good idea,” Rod remembers. “And he told us, ‘I’ll be fine—it’s prescribed by the doctor.’”

Chad’s relapse led him down a familiar path—first prescription pills, then heroi

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