I wonder how often they update?
If this had happened in the U.S., it raises interesting 4th amendment issues. I’m not sure satellite images count as “plain view” to justify an arrest, or even should be allowed to be used to establish probable cause for a warrant…
Most Google images are not from satellites, just normal airplanes. Airplanes are routinely used for finding illegal marijuana plantations in remote areas of the West.
That I did not know.
Score:
**
garygnu ** 1
ignorance 0
Now I really want to see a Google earth picture of a marijuana field. 
You’re not the only one, I figured there would be a picture accompanying the article…
Though I have to wonder, are Google Earth pictures ever a high enough resolution to figure out the plant, rather than a field of green?
I’m surprised the Swiss police even care about a field of weed. America, I could see, but not Switzerland.
One of my favorite things to do when I was stoned in college was to look at Google Earth.
Well they did say in the article that the marijuana field was discovered in the middle of a cornfield. If they were just looking for general anomalies of this nature (a field of one plant growing in the middle of a field of a distinctly different plant) I guess it’s feasible that with enough investigation they’d find something.
I’m with you on the resolution though. I was able to pinpoint my house but I couldn’t tell what kind of plants were in the backyard.
And the Google Earth view is a patchwork of pictures taken at various times. The picture of my house is at least 3 years old, I know because it has been re-roofed in a different color since the picture was taken. Ten miles away I can see newer pictures.
The views are not anything even approaching real time. So it makes me wonder if this pot plantation had been used for multiple years or if they just got lucky with a new picture.
Weed is a noticeably different color from corn (and trees, wheat, etc.).