The placebo effect

Well I’ve been a largely fruitless mission this week to get hold of a set of placebo inhalers. I don’t want to harp back to the ‘good old days’ but it used to be so easy to get hold of the various placebo’s. I was really surprised just how difficult companies are now making it to get hold of these, especially in the light of MURs, etc. Just how am I supposed to do my job competently with new asthma / COPD patients if I haven’t got the appropriate placebo inhalers to hand!
One company told me that they only supplied placebo inhalers on written authority from a doctor (which did lead to some rather negative feedback from me). Two other companies told me I had to order them through my wholesaler but the wholesaler knew nothing about it. In the end I contacted some local reps who kindly supplied some of what I needed, but what wasted effort on my part to get hold of some of the tools of my trade!