Know why Europeans take trains instead of driving, nap after lunch, and need all that vacation time? Because they're strung out on potently good drugs from their local pharmacies, of course — on codeine-packed super-pills and influenza-smashing fizzy tablets, all available without that persnickety permission slip known as a prescription. Big-boy painkillers aren't regulated the way they are at home, making some European cold or sleep medications attractive souvenirs for frequent travelers. When my friend Brett is in London, for example, he buys as much Night Nurse as he thinks he can safely bring back without arousing suspicion at customs. "It's like NyQuil, but it takes the top of your head off," he says of the paracetamol-and-promethazine-based miracle cure. "It's the kind of drug that makes you wish you had a cold."

In the States, these substances' prescription-only status — and sometimes their plain absence — has as much to do with America's puritanical (and hypocritical) relationship with drugs as it does with any real danger. Consider codeine. "It's a weak narcotic," explains Dr. J. Michael McKnight, a Manhattan internist. "It is conceivable, though, that someone could become addicted to it — this is a country where people chug Robitussin DM for fun." McKnight's advice: Buy meds only where you speak the language. "You should be able to ask the pharmacist what's what. A foreign drug might interfere with medication you've brought from home, so it's good to ask." As for concrete suggestions, he adds: "Foreign hangover remedies are the best. Maybe it's just the placebo effect because I can't get them here, but they really work. Man, I wish I could get them here."