Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are face with ‘cannabis hell’ in their neighbourhood (Image: Getty)

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are faced with a difficult situation after their Montecito neighbourhood in California was found to be plagued with a “jaw-clamping stench” due to legally grown cannabis farms nearby.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex live in a £12 million mansion in Montecito along with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

The lavish home boasts 16 bathrooms, nine bedrooms, a games room, a home theatre, spa facilities, an elevator, a gym, a swimming pool and a tennis court.

Harry and Meghan moved into the luxurious spot back in 2020, after they quit their royal duties and left Britain earlier that year.

But now the entire neighbourhood is said to be in need of a “scrubber” machine after residents complained about a “skunk-like” odour, a “jaw-clamping stench” and an “ungodly stink”, emitting in the air.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved to the US in 2020 (Image: Getty)

According to the Mail, the pungent smell is caused by cannabis farms – the plants of which are legally grown in California – including the farm where the duchess will be filming her cookery Netflix show, which is only 10 minutes away from the couple’s home.

One resident told the Mail’s Richard Eden how he thought “something [had] died in the basement’ — until, that is, he remembered he didn’t have a basement.”

The resident had to call pest control experts to install traps which yielded no results until they realised the smell was circulating in the air and was caused by the cannabis plants.

According to the report, the homeowner brought two lawsuits against two cannabis farms, excluding the one used for Meghan’s Netflix show.

It also claimed that to successfully get rid of the cannabis smell, residents would have to use air scrubbers, which are air-filtering machines aimed to remove contaminants from the air such as dust, odours, smoke, mould spores and others.

Around 10 of these machines would be needed per acre to effectively eliminate the stench, with one reportedly costing at least £17,000.

Prince Harry has previously spoken about using drugs including cannabis, cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms in his memoir Spare, which was released last January.

He described how in 2015, while living in Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, he smoked marijuana.

Last year and while promoting his book, the duke spoke to Dr Gabor Mate, author of The Myth Of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing In A Toxic Culture, about his drug use.

He said: “(Cocaine) didn’t do anything for me, it was more a social thing and gave me a sense of belonging for sure, I think it probably also made me feel different to the way I was feeling, which was kind of the point.

“Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me.”