Instrumentalization of World No Tobacco Day in Morocco

The proposals of Moroccan "experts" brought together by the Horizon Press group largely echo the tobacco industry's discourse on how tobacco control should be organized. The framework of World No Tobacco Day has been hijacked for this purpose, while Morocco is clearly lacking in the fight against smoking.

"World No Tobacco Day: What scientific and regulatory resolutions should Morocco adopt?" This was the theme of a round table organized on May 18, 2023 in Casablanca by the Cercle des ÉCO of the Horizon Press group, which brings together experts from a sector – here, medicine – to discuss economic issues.[1].

A discourse similar to that of the tobacco industry

Noting that the economic cost of smoking in Morocco is estimated at 5 billion dirhams (450 million euros) and that the number of smokers is stagnating or increasing, the experts convened criticized the lack of an anti-smoking policy in Morocco. The few measures adopted to protect the population are limited to bans on smoking in public places and the sale of unapproved products. These provisions also appear to be very poorly implemented, since their implementing decrees have reportedly never been published.

The experts summoned by Horizon Press were strangely unanimous on how to remedy smoking in Morocco and all recommended promoting the use of electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco, presented as " alternatives » to smoking, rather than quitting smoking. This discourse seems to be modeled on that which the tobacco industry borrows from harm reduction and which it uses to advertise its new products, whether heated tobacco or nicotine pouches. Horizon Press also participates in the indirect communication of Philip Morris International (PMI), for example by having invited Abla Benslimane, director of external affairs at PMI Morocco, as a speaker at another round table organized by the Cercle des ECO and dedicated to women business leaders, on March 8, 2022[2].

To adorn this speech with a scientific aura, industrialists are monetizing the services of health professionals. recognized which lend credibility to operations that are essentially commercial in nature. Professor David Khayat, former president of the French National Cancer Institute (INCa), thus participated in February 2020 in a conference on risk reduction organized in Paris by Atlantic Santé and financed by Philip Morris International.

A strange and sudden interest in the FCTC

The main nuance brought by the round table organized in Casablanca lies in a proposal to have Morocco ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), one of the very few countries to have opted out of it. This proposal was put forward by Dr. Fatima Mazzi, a public health physician and member of the Social Affairs Committee in Parliament.[3], this proposal is not usually part of the arguments defended by the tobacco industry, which on the contrary seeks to eliminate the FCTC. As the next Conference of the Parties (COP 10) approaches, which brings together every two years the countries that have ratified the FCTC and is to be held in November 2023, it would however be possible to see this as a use of Morocco to destabilize the FCTC and the World Health Organization (WHO), constant targets of the tobacco industry.

Hijacking of anti-tobacco events in Morocco

One of the practices used by industry to counter WHO initiatives is to organize a seemingly scientific event before a tobacco control event. This approach was recently used in Spain, with the organization of a scientific conference on harm reduction in Madrid, two months before the 9th World Health Organization (WHO) was held in the same city.^th European Conference on Tobacco or Health[4]The first of these conferences, denounced by the Spanish Ministry of Health and the WHO, had the support of the King Juan Carlos University withdrawn.

World No Tobacco Day is regularly the target of attempts to hijack it by the tobacco and vaping industries to communicate on their new products or organize counter-events. The e-liquid manufacturers of France Vapotage – an organization emanating from the tobacco industry – have thus organized, since 2018, several editions of a self-declared World Vaping Day, conveniently located on May 30, the eve of World No Tobacco Day[5]. Similarly, the round table organized by Horizon Press looks like a hijacking of World No Tobacco Day, promoted by the WHO.

Keywords: Morocco, World No Tobacco Day, Horizon Press, WHO.

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[1] Fight against smoking: in Morocco, the cause is stagnating, The ECO, published May 22, 2023, accessed May 23, 2023.

[2] Horizon Press Group Celebrates Women, The ECO, published March 7, 2022, accessed May 23, 2023.

[3] Harm reduction conference compromised in Madrid, Tobacco-Free Generation, published February 15, 2023, accessed May 23, 2023.

[4] Call to review the way we fight smoking from a scientific, legal and awareness-raising perspective, Libération (Morocco), published May 21, 2023, consulted May 23, 2023.

[5] France Vaping, World Vaping Day: a protest on May 30, 2022, La Revue des tabacs, published May 16, 2022, consulted May 23, 2022.