Brian McDonald
Eight people died in Morocco and dozens of others were hospitalized after drinking homemade alcoholic beverages, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
“Serious complications from poisoning” led to the death of eight people in the city of Sidi Allal Tazi, according to the regional health directorate. Sidi Allal Tazi is about 420 kilometers from the coastal city of Marrakech.
More than 100 people in the city, which has a population of just over 3,100, suffered alcohol poisoning between Monday and Wednesday due to methanol consumption, health officials said in a statement. Eighty-one people are still being monitored.
Authorities said two suspects, ages 21 and 41, were identified as those responsible for the smuggled alcohol and were among those hospitalized.
Methanol is a toxic form of alcohol used industrially as a solvent, pesticide or alternative fuel source. It is not used in the production of alcohol sold for human consumption, CBS News previously reported.
According to Methanol Institute, a global trade association, “unscrupulous companies or individuals” sometimes deliberately add methanol to alcoholic beverages as a cheaper alternative to safe, consumable ethanol, CBS News previously reported. The institute also states that poisoning can occur due to the inadequate preparation of homemade alcohol. Symptoms of methanol poisoning include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing, blindness, blurred vision, seizures and coma, according to the institute, and drinking just 0.8 ounces of the substance can be fatal.
Similar incidents have been reported across the world. In 2022, 21 teenagers died in a tavern in South Africa after consuming alcohol suspected to contain methanol. Drinks contaminated with methanol also killed more than 50 people in Peru that same year.
Homemade alcohol caused seven deaths in Meknes in central Morocco last year and 19 deaths in the northern town of Ksar El Kebir in 2022.
Moroccan law technically prohibits the sale of alcohol to Muslims, who make up 99% of the country’s population, but it can easily be found in bars, restaurants or even licensed stores that offer it for sale behind opaque windows and thick curtains.
Other parts of the world that ban alcohol have seen large-scale alcohol poisoning. In the Indian state of Bihar, where the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited, 30 people died after consuming contaminated alcohol sold without authorization in 2022. Another 28 deaths were recorded in the country’s Gujarat state, which also bans alcoholic beverages, the same year. In 2020, more than 100 people died in the country after drinking contaminated alcoholic beverages.
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