About Know Drugs
Our Mission
At Know Drugs, we are transforming youth drug education. We move beyond outdated, fear-based tactics to provide practical, science-backed, and compassionate harm reduction strategies for schools and communities. Our mission is to empower teens with the knowledge and skills they need to stay safe, reduce risk, and save lives. We believe that open, honest conversation is the cornerstone of prevention.
Through engaging workshops, speaking engagements, and expert consultation, we partner with schools, parents, and community leaders to build safer environments for young people.
Our Approach
Our philosophy is simple: safety first. We understand that while abstinence is the safest choice, it isn't the reality for all teens. By providing them with honest information about risks and safety, we empower them to make healthier decisions for themselves and their peers. We meet communities where they are, offering realistic solutions that protect the health and futures of young people.
Our Founder
Rhana Hashemi, Executive Director
Rhana Hashemi is a nationally recognized drug educator driven by a mission to prevent youth overdose and transform the way we talk about drugs with teens. Her passion is deeply personal, rooted in her own experiences navigating drug experimentation without safety information and enduring the loss of close friends to fatal overdoses. This journey ignited her life's work: to replace mistrust, misinformation, and stigma with education, support, and harm reduction.
To pioneer a new approach, Rhana founded Know Drugs, the first drug education organization in the U.S. dedicated to integrating harm reduction into school policies and curriculum. Through Know Drugs, she was instrumental in shaping the "Safety First" curriculum and developing harm reduction trainings for teachers, equipping educators with the tools for open, honest, and effective conversations. These resources are now freely available via the Stanford REACH Lab, where Rhana continues to serve as an advisor.
Rhana’s unique expertise bridges grassroots advocacy and rigorous academic research. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Social Psychology at Stanford University, studying student belonging and substance use. This revolving door between community work and scholarship ensures that her strategies are evidence-based, effective, and meet the highest standards—because the stakes are too high for anything less.
She has designed comprehensive drug education initiatives for diverse communities, consulting for states, counties, and nonprofits on effective harm reduction communication for adolescents. Her work has been featured in the The Hill, New York Times, TIME Magazine, and NBC’s Today Show, and she was honored by Students for Sensible Drug Policy as one of their '40 under 40' outstanding BIPOC leaders in Drug Policy.
Rhana holds an M.S. in Community Health Prevention Research from the Stanford School of Medicine and a B.A. with honors in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley.