MARLBOROUGH - Dealing a blow to years of work and recent gains in youth drug prevention, Massachusetts has joined a growing, but still short, list of states to decriminalize marijuana possession. At least that is the intention of some 65 percent of voters checking "Yes" on a ballot initiative that makes possession of an ounce or less of marijuana a civil offense (punishable by a ticket) as opposed to a criminal one.

And this on the same day that the same voters approved a ban on greyhound racing.

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Unless you're the governor, a member of the Democratic leadership in the House or Senate, or the chairman of an important committee, it's hard to put an issue on the Legislature's agenda. In recent elections, activists have tried another way: They put an advisory question on the ballot in the district representated by the committee chairman.

So far, the strategy hasn't worked, and considering the lack of enthusiasm shown by some local legislators to the opinions expressed by voters last week, the activists may be disappointed again.

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The Romney administration has eliminated funding for many prevention programs, including all of the funding for D.A.R.E. programs throughout Massachusetts.

Based on information and surveys from 1998, administration leaders claim that there is not enough data to show that spending tax payer's money on prevention education programs, D.A.R.E. specifically, works in Massachusetts.

Since the elimination of the $4.3-million state appropriated funding last year, more than 125 towns have been forced to reassign their D.A.R.E. officers and remove them from schools. Thankfully, many towns had the ability to tighten belts in other areas to keep the program in their schools.

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