Opinion
Case No. 97-1059
Opinion filed December 10, 1997
Appeal of a non-final order from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Joyce A. Julian, Judge; L.T. Case No. 96-8670CF10A.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Denise M. Mitchell, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Ellen Griffin, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
The state appeals a motion to suppress a short cut straw, which an officer observed in a vehicle and seized, after pulling appellee over for an expired vehicle tag. Although short cut straws are often used in drug activity, they are not, in and of themselves, sufficient to constitute probable cause for a search. Anderson v. State, 532 So.2d 4 (Fla. 2d DCA 1988). See also Caplan v. State, 531 So.2d 88 (Fla. 1988) (mere observation of hand rolled cigarettes in an automobile does not constitute probable cause). If there had been a connection between the reason the vehicle was pulled over and the straw, there would have been probable cause. State v. Neumann, 567 So.2d 950 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990) (short straw in automobile constitutes probable cause where defendant was pulled over for appearing to be driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs).
Affirmed.
POLEN, KLEIN and PARIENTE, JJ., concur.