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“The encounters become very aggressive and then you have people getting charged with resisting arrest or obstructing governmental administration,” said Yung-Mi Lee, an attorney with Brooklyn Defender Services.

“We’re concerned that introducing mental health professionals who are mandated reporters directly into family shelters, which are people’s homes, will inadvertently increase surveillance of families" Alexandra Dougherty of Brooklyn Defenders said.

New York City’s child welfare system has been slow to change since changing its policy and since legalization, with marijuana continuing to be used as a cudgel against families, attorneys leaning on old taboos, and family court judges allowing outmoded ideas about marijuana to persist.

A state judge has ordered the city’s Department of Correction to pay out fines to individuals on Rikers Island who were deprived of medical appointments, an unusual penalty that underscores the depth of medical neglect within the city’s troubled jail system.

“They’re not only taking, obviously, these individuals away from their communities and families, but they’re taking them away from their access and their right to counsel of choice."