Punjab Government’s Special Task Force (STF) on drugs is all set to bring its new “Wall of Drugs” campaign as a part of its ongoing anti-drug crusade.

The “Wall of Drugs” will be STF’s third campaign after the success of Drug Abuse Prevention Officers (DAPO) program and #TuMeraBuddy program. The new campaign — a special programme to spread awareness among the people of the state — is expected to be launched officially by the STF soon.

Notably, the STF, ever since its inception, has gradually made way into every household of the state with its carefully planned and contextual initiatives against drug abuse — right from roping in the citizenry of the state to be the face of the attack against drug menace, to decisively using social media platform as its mouthpiece.

Only recently, the State Government has appointed a 1993-batch ADGP-rank officer Gurpreet Kaur Deo, after relieving DGP-rank Mohammad Mustafa from the charge.

STF’s DAPO program had seen mass participation from all quarters of the state in the form of volunteers, while its #TuMeraBuddy campaign had also spread like wildfire amongst the student fraternity in the state.

Officially launched by the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on the occasion of India’s 72nd Independence Day celebrations in Ludhiana, #TuMeraBuddy aimed at roping in the students of the state to proactively fight drug abuse at school and college level.

And for reaching out to the people, the STF made the best use of social media. “The brain behind STF’s social media initiatives is political media strategist Naresh Arora and his team at DesignBoxed Creatives, who have carefully drafted every little detail of these campaigns with thorough expertise,” said an official.

The official said that Arora has been instrumental in carving a social media niche for STF, through the conceptualisation of the space in the form of weekly talk shows, consistent posts and engaging interactions, making the cause of fighting drugs in Punjab participatory and unavoidable.

The success of #TuMeraBuddy program, in terms of its inclusivity can be gauged from the fact that everyone — from senior-most bureaucrats to the people on streets were using the image of this program as their ‘display picture’ on WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter and using the phrase ‘Tu Mera Buddy’ as a part of their conversations.