Have you tried to read the 33 pages of fine print in your official Voter Information Guide that aims to legalize recreational marijuana (RMJ) in California? Too much to digest? Are you going to rely on the half sheet Quick Reference Guide to get your facts?

Buried within the proposed RMJ law are provisions governing RMJ growing that should concern all homeowners, parents and landlords that are not mentioned in the Quick Reference Guide.

The proposed law states that six RMJ plants, with no size restriction, may be grown at a private residence. Private residence is defined to include a house, apartment or mobile home.

This new “right” was featured in the Oct. 16 Press Democrat with pictures of marijuana plants that appear to be over 6 feet high and at least 4 or 5 feet wide.

This new right is supposedly tempered by provisions which gave cities and counties the power to enact and enforce reasonable regulations to prohibit outdoor RMJ growing on the grounds of a private residence, but in the next paragraph forbids the city or county to prohibit indoor growing in a fully enclosed and secure residence or accessory structure.

The Trojan horse is buried on page 181 of the Voter Information Guide but is never mentioned anywhere else.

Subparagraph (4) of Section 11362.2 gives the California Attorney General the authority to nullify and repeal all city and county zoning ordinances to regulate outdoor growing at a private residence upon a determination by the attorney general that nonmedical use of the RMJ is lawful in the state of California under federal law.

To give a state politician the unilateral power to gut all local residential zoning ordinances is horrible policy and frightening.

Any homeowner or parent who has had to endure the skunk-like stench of marijuana for weeks at a time knows how terrible this could be. Valuable homes become unsellable.

As a person who has studied and practiced law for over 35 years, I have noticed that it is not unusual for a politician to suddenly announce that a long-accepted and established principle of law is incorrect. It is not hard to imagine this happening in our state capital. Why else would this be buried in the fine print?

Protect our children and residential neighborhoods and vote no on Proposition 64.

Bob Bridges lives in Lakeport, Calif.