71 per cent of Moroccan cigarettes contain too much tar and thus violate the legal standard, Morocco World News reported.

The government is facing problems regulating standards for cigarettes, which stipulate that only 10 mg tar, 1 mg nicotine and 10 mg carbon monoxide should be contained in each stick. However, 71 per cent of Moroccan cigarettes actually contain 14 mg tar. In all, 96 per cent of cigarettes sold are “out of the ordinary”, the report said.
According to L’Economiste, most of the cigarettes come from the Marquise brand from the Moroccan Tobacco Company and Winston from Japan Tobacco International. Due to competitive pressure, international importers are not willing to adapt to the standards. As the standard should apply to both locally produced and imported tobacco, and enforcement appears to be a challenge, there are some who are committed to completely repeal cigarette standards, the report said.