This is absolutely true. http://www.biopsychiatry.com/meprobamate/index.html

It isn't so much stomaching the horror as it is having on hand a sufficient supply of something else to ease the tension while the package crosses customs.

I have in the past received letters from customs about things being held up - I shrug and write it off as a loss, as a general rule. Probably not the most "American" thing to do (which would be to fight for what is mine, I would like to think), but perhaps the safest, on a personal level.

I avoid IOPs - if they could ship COD I would be more inclined to do business with them, but since that doesn't work for a host of reasons (people not paying international shipping rates and the resulting returns, for instance) I pay the over-priced USA charges.

The cost of cowardice - I know it well. It is usually about 3x, if not more.