Your future can still go to pot: Legal Aid

STONERS STILL face a significant risk of arrest in New York Cityp — despite a City Hall push to decriminalize small amounts of pot, according to the Legal Aid Society.

Legal Aid lawyers handled 5,934 pot cases involving misdemeanor charges and violations from Jan. 1 to Aug. 11, down only slightly from the 6,180 recorded during the corresponding span last year, according to records kept by the organization.

In July — the month with the highest number of Legal Aid-handled marijuana cases — lawyers dealt with 867 pot busts. February saw the fewest, with 644.

“At a minimum, what these numbers are saying is that despite some good effort to reduce the number of people who have marijuana charges coming through the criminal justice system . . . we still have a bit of a way to go,” said Tina Luongo, who runs Legal Aid’s criminal practice.

Advocates say the spirit of the 2014 policy shift was to drastically reduce the number of black and Latino New Yorkers who become saddled with open cases that can keep them from being productive members of society.

Austin Finan, a spokesman for Mayor de Blasio, said the new pot policy is in full swing and the numbers are heading in the right direction, down 37% since 2013.