As New York City police begin talks on how it could change enforcement of marijuana laws, district attorneys in the metro area have taken different stances on how they might approach low-level offenses like possession and public smoking.

This week, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he sees legalization of marijuana in New York as an inevitability and has asked the New York City Police Department to stop arresting people for toking up in public and issue summonses instead.

The announcement came after Police Commissioner James O'Neill announced that he would convene a 30-day working group to study the NYPD's enforcement policies for marijuana and review how it should deal with public smoking and possession.

“The NYPD has no interest in arresting New Yorkers for marijuana offenses when those arrests have no impact on public safety,” O'Neill said in a news release.

Amid the announcements, two of New York City's district attorneys appeared poised to be at the forefront of any forthcoming efforts to soften enforcement of marijuana laws.

The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office stopped prosecuting low-level marijuana possession cases back in 2014, but is now in the midst of a pilot program launched three months ago in which the office declines to prosecute public smoking unless it is causing a nuisance.

Exceptions to the policy include instances in which someone is smoking weed while they are behind the wheel or on public transit, according to a person familiar with the policy.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced that, starting in August, his office would decline prosecution of smoking and possession cases    

Vance made the announcement along with the release of a report from a six-month study by his office of public safety issues in jurisdictions where recreational pot has been legalized, in which he notes that nine states and the District of Columbia allow recreational use of marijuana, but impose various penalties for public use.  

But other DAs in New York City have said they plan to take a more cautious tack on how their offices will handle marijuana offenses as the working group continues discussions.

In a statement, Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon said that while he could “envision a New York” where criminal summonses are issued in some cases, he would reserve comment until the police commissioner's working group has finished its task.

“At the same time, I took an oath to uphold the laws of the state of New York, and ultimately, this is an issue that should be decided in a more thoughtful and comprehensive way by the state legislature, and not as a rushed reaction to the top news headlines of the day,” McMahon said.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement that she will urge the NYPD to issue criminal summonses for public smoking rather than arresting violators, but did not say that she would snuff out prosecution of marijuana law-offenses altogether.

On Monday, nine local, state and federal lawmakers from Queens issued a letter to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, in which they expressed concern that a single police precinct covering several Eastern Queens neighborhoods tallied 2,199 summonses issued for marijuana, the highest of any command in the five boroughs.

In response, Brown said that, of the more than 2,500 smoking-in-public cases disposed in Queens over a year period ending on May 1, about 70 percent resulted in adjournments in contemplation of dismissal, and that 2.4 percent resulted in criminal convictions.

Brown also noted that, in jurisdictions where recreational pot is legal, penalties are imposed for public use.

As for counties in the New York City metro area, the stance of Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino Jr.'s Office on the issue was clear: “At this time, this office is following state law and the status quo,” a spokeswoman for the office said.

Miriam Sholder, a spokeswoman for Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas' Office, said the office evaluates its approach to low-level marijuana offenses and takes a “progressive approach” to balance public safety with impacts on offenders.

But she said that, given the presence of a countywide law enforcement agency as well as departments within individual municipalities, and a lack of legislative direction, “uniform policymaking is challenging.”

“We will monitor, with interest, how other jurisdictions handle these offenses as we await action by the legislature,” Sholder said.