Is Caffeine legal in Morocco?

Legal status

Not a controlled substance as read: caffeine is in no section II tableau of substances vénéneuses. It is not in tableau B, « Produits stupéfiants », as abrogated and replaced by arrêté du ministre de la santé publique n° 1850-96 of 3 September 1996, Bulletin officiel 4422 of 17 October 1996, pages 713 to 716, read in full from the page image, so it is not a substance « classée comme stupéfiant ». It is not in tableau A, « Produits toxiques », or tableau C, « Produits dangereux », of arrêté n° 171-66 of 11 March 1966, Bulletin officiel 2817 of 26 October 1966, pages 1178 to 1189. The only caffeine entry there is « Acétylamino-2 indolyl-3 propanoate de caféine » in tableau C, a distinct compound salt and not caffeine itself, and the tableaux carry no theophylline or theobromine entry of their own, only named theophylline derivatives. It is in none of the three tableaux annexed to the dahir of 2 December 1922, as the ONSSA consolidated text gives them, and in no entry of the 1971 Convention tableaux as printed at Bulletin officiel 3590 of 19 August 1981, page 404. This holds for tableau B as published in 1996 and tableaux A and C as published in 1966, read on 3 October 2026; later arrêtés amending tableaux A and C 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 dahir portant loi 1-73-282 of 21 May 1974, read from the page image of Bulletin officiel 3214, pages 928 and 929, on 3 October 2026, provides death or life imprisonment. Conduct distinction. Its articles 2, 3, 4 and 8 attach to « les substances ou plantes classées comme stupéfiants » and its article 1 to substances inscribed in tableau B, and caffeine is in neither, so no narcotics article reaches it and articles 11 and 13 have no offence to attach to. Article 44 of the dahir of 2 December 1922, read from the page image of Bulletin officiel 534, page 63, punishes contraventions « relatives à la vente, l'achat et l'emploi des substances vénéneuses », and caffeine is not one. Buying, holding and drinking caffeine carry no penalty under any instrument read. 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 caffeine is not.

If prescribed or medical

Caffeine is not a section II substance in any tableau read, so the 1922 dahir sets no prescription rule for it, and no prescription question arises for ordinary dietary amounts. Food and medicines rules on caffeine content were not read for this cell.

Documentation

The chain has three links and the enumerated list sits in the middle one. Dahir portant loi 1-73-282 of 28 rebia II 1394 (21 May 1974), published at Bulletin officiel 3214 of 5 June 1974, pages 928 and 929, enumerates no substance at all; its article 1 reaches « les substances classées comme stupéfiants et inscrites au tableau B », and its articles 2, 3, 4 and 8 reach « les substances ou plantes classées comme stupéfiants ». Classification happens under the dahir of 12 rebia II 1341 (2 December 1922), whose article 1, as modified on 17 March 1953, divides substances into tableaux A, B and C and has the section II lists for human and veterinary medicine made by arrêté of the health administration. Those lists are arrêté n° 171-66, Bulletin officiel 2817 of 26 October 1966, for tableaux A and C, and arrêté n° 1850-96, Bulletin officiel 4422 of 17 October 1996, for tableau B, which it abrogated and replaced. Dahir 1-80-140 of 17 December 1980, at Bulletin officiel 3590 of 19 August 1981, page 404, is a publication dahir and inscribes nothing. Placement for caffeine: in no section II tableau, as tableau B was published in 1996 and tableaux A and C in 1966. Search record. Tableau B of 1996 was read in full from the page image. Tableaux A and C of 1966 were searched in an OCR text of every page for caféine, théine, xanthine, théophylline and théobromine, and the entries that begin with C in both tableaux, pages 1179 and 1185, were then read from the page image so that an OCR miss could not stand as an absence. The single caffeine hit is the compound salt quoted above. Caféine, théine, xanthine, théophylline and théobromine also return zero as substance entries in the 1922 annex and the 1981 Convention print, 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.