Lectures on Tap - "How a British Sailor Invented the Modern Drug Trade"
About this Event
📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email
🧠 Lecture: "How a British Sailor Invented the Modern Drug Trade"
🎤 Speaker: Dr. David Tuch
Join us for a gripping evening as Dr. David Tuch uncovers the incredible true story of Harold Derber, a debonair British merchant seaman whose postwar smuggling network helped shape America’s modern narcotics economy.
Drawing from his new book, The Wireless Operator, Dr. Tuch will reveal how Derber exploited the “mothership loophole”—a little-known maritime legal gap that allowed traffickers to anchor offshore and transfer drugs to smaller boats beyond the reach of authorities.
By the early 1970s, Derber’s inventive methods had dramatically increased marijuana imports into the United States, helping to usher in a new era in the global drug trade. His high-seas empire ultimately collapsed when his flagship vessel was seized during Operation Stopgap, an event that signaled the arrival of the modern, militarized war on drugs.
Dr. David Tuch is an author and entrepreneur who explores history’s hidden stories. Originally from New York, he has lived in England and France and now calls Brookline, Massachusetts, home. The Wireless Operator is his debut book.
Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌
Agenda
6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.
6:55 PM – Host introduction
7:00 PM – Lecture begins
7:45 PM – Audience Q&A
8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round
8:30 PM – Wrap up.
Where is it happening?
USD 39.19
