Is Alcohol legal in Morocco?

Legal status

Legal to drink, but sale is licensed and restricted, and a licensed seller may not sell or give alcohol to a Moroccan Muslim. Beverage alcohol is not in the section II lists of substances vénéneuses: it is in no entry of tableau B as replaced by arrêté 1850-96 in 1996, and the tableau C entries that contain the word alcohol, in the 1922 annex and in arrêté 171-66 of 1966, are compound names such as « Alcoolature d'aconit » and « Acide sulfurique alcoolisé (eau de Rabel) », an aconite tincture and an acid preparation. The trade is governed by arrêté du directeur général du cabinet royal n° 3-177-66 of 17 July 1967 réglementant le commerce des boissons alcooliques ou alcoolisées, published at Bulletin officiel 2856 of 26 July 1967 from page 829. Its article 28 provides « Il est interdit à tout exploitant d'un établissement soumis à licence de vendre ou d'offrir gratuitement des boissons alcooliques ou alcoolisées à des marocains musulmans ». Article 30 forbids a licensee to sell or offer them « à des mineurs de 16 ans », minors under 16, and article 29 forbids admitting minors under 16 to a drinks outlet unless accompanied by a parent or an adult in charge of them. Public drunkenness is a separate offence under décret royal n° 724-66 of 14 November 1967 portant loi, relatif à la répression de l'ivresse publique, Bulletin officiel 2873 of 22 November 1967, page 1346. This is the regime as published in 1967, read in the French edition page images on 3 October 2026, and in the Arabic text consolidated to 28 October 1970 that the Ministry of Justice publishes; later amendments were not swept. This is a reading of the section II lists, for human and veterinary medicine; the section I lists for commerce, industry and agriculture, which article 1 of the 1922 dahir has made by joint arrêté, were not read.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. No article of arrêté 3-177-66 or of décret royal 724-66, read from the page images of Bulletin officiel 2856 and 2873 on 3 October 2026, provides death or life imprisonment. The longest term either sets is one year: article 39 of the arrêté punishes running an establishment after a closure order with six months to one year and a fine of 600 to 2.000 dirhams. Conduct distinction. Drinking is not itself an offence under either text; what is punished is selling, serving and public drunkenness. Article 1 of décret royal 724-66 punishes anyone found in a state of manifest drunkenness in streets, roads, cafés, cabarets or other places public or open to the public with one to six months and a fine of 150 to 500 dirhams, or one of those penalties only, and those penalties may be doubled where the drunk person caused « du tapage troublant la tranquillité publique », a disturbance troubling the public peace. Article 2 makes imprisonment compulsory on a first recidivism and the maximum compulsory on a later one, and article 4 lets the police hold a drunk person at the nearest police or gendarmerie post until sober. Article 28 of the arrêté punishes a licensee who sells or gives alcohol to a Moroccan Muslim with one to six months and a fine of 300 to 1.500 dirhams, or one of those penalties only, which « peuvent être portées au double » on recidivism. Article 30 punishes selling or offering alcohol to a minor under 16 with one to two months and a fine of 24 to 360 dirhams, or one of those penalties only. Article 31 punishes anyone who makes a minor under 16 drink to the point of drunkenness with one to six months and a fine of 100 to 1.000 dirhams, which may be doubled on recidivism. Article 32 fines a seller who serves people who are manifestly drunk 150 to 500 dirhams. Article 1 requires a prior authorisation from the local administrative authority to sell alcohol by the bottle, on pain of one to six months and a fine of 500 to 2.500 dirhams. For comparison, the narcotics penalties that do not reach this row: Article 2 of dahir portant loi 1-73-282 punishes holding « les substances ou plantes classées comme stupéfiants » with five to ten years and a fine of 5.000 to 500.000 dirhams, Article 8 punishes their unlawful use with two months to one year, Article 11 requires confiscation of what was seized and Article 13 lets the court ban a foreign national for five to ten years, and all four apply only to a substance classified as a stupéfiant, which beverage alcohol is not.

If prescribed or medical

Beverage alcohol is not a medicine question here and no prescription rule applies to it. The rules that govern it are the licensing and sale rules of arrêté 3-177-66 and the public drunkenness offence of décret royal 724-66.

Documentation

Two instruments govern this row, and neither is part of the poisons framework. Arrêté du directeur général du cabinet royal n° 3-177-66 of 17 July 1967, made under the décret royal n° 76-66 of 31 January 1966 delegating matters concerning alcohol, alcoholic drinks, wines and games of chance, was published in French at Bulletin officiel 2856 of 26 July 1967, from page 829, and articles 24 to 41 were read from the page image of page 831. The Ministry of Justice publishes on adala.justice.gov.ma an Arabic text consolidated to 28 October 1970, which records one amendment, arrêté 3-289-70 of 25 July 1970 at Bulletin officiel 3026, and article 1 and the full set of penalty articles were read in that text. Décret royal n° 724-66 of 14 November 1967 portant loi, relatif à la répression de l'ivresse publique, was read from the page image of Bulletin officiel 2873 of 22 November 1967, page 1346; its article 6 repeals the dahir of 20 September 1914 and the law of 30 July 1929 on public drunkenness. The poisons tableaux were also read for this row: beverage alcohol is in no entry of tableau B as replaced by arrêté n° 1850-96 of 3 September 1996, Bulletin officiel 4422, pages 713 to 716, and the tableau C entries of arrêté n° 171-66, Bulletin officiel 2817 of 26 October 1966, that contain the alcool stem are compound names and not ethanol. Placement for alcohol: in no section II tableau; governed by arrêté 3-177-66 and décret royal 724-66 as published in 1967. Search record. The arrêté was found through its number on adala.justice.gov.ma and in the sommaire of Bulletin officiel 2856, and the décret royal through the sommaire of issue 2873, both by scanning the 1967 French edition issues 2856 to 2876 on sgg.gov.ma. A Penal Code reform debated in Morocco would touch the public drunkenness offence; no enacted change was found and none was read. Beverage alcohol is also in no entry of the 1971 Convention tableaux as printed at Bulletin officiel 3590 of 19 August 1981, page 404, as the live cell recorded on 22 September 2026.

Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Morocco’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.