Morocco Grapples with Hookah Regulation as Legal Gray Area Sparks Debate

"The hookah is not formally prohibited by the laws in force," said Brahim Menkar, a lawyer at the Rabat bar, in an interview with Assabah. The decisions to ban it by local authorities or the police raids carried out in certain tourist areas, he said, are the result of complaints from residents. According to him, the latter denounce the odors given off by these products and the phenomena of prostitution and drug use.

This is also why some governors have decided to ban the consumption and marketing of the hookah in their prefecture. This is the case of the former governor of Meknes, the same source recalls. He had instructed all the departments of the prefecture to fight against this scourge. Yet no legal framework has provided for either the consumption or the marketing of the hookah.

Hookah suppliers, for their part, take advantage of this legal uncertainty. Many of them sell the product on a large scale in Casablanca and its surroundings.