A drugs panel – including Sussex’s police commissioner – has slammed suggestions Brighton and Hove should introduce shooting galleries for addicts.

The comments come just weeks after Brighton and Hove City Council launched a feasibility study into the proposal.

Andy Winter, chief executive of Brighton Housing Trust, said the independent report, which championed the scheme among a host of other options, had done a “huge disservice” to the debate surrounding addiction in the city.

Speaking at the Drugs and Alcohol Today conference, sponsored by health and social care charity CRI, the veteran social worker said the report had put the debate back “five or ten years” adding “the sooner we forget about it the better”.

Quit In March this year the Independent Drug Commission for Brighton and Hove, which was created by Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas, suggested the city consider introducing drug consumption rooms.

The facilities, which are already used in a number of countries including Germany, Canada and Denmark, operate by allowing addicts to take drugs in a safe and sterile environment free from fear of prosecution.

The rooms would be staffed by nurses to prevent overdoses and would feature information and help for those wanting to quit.

Despite the controversy surrounding the scheme, the council’s health and wellbeing committee has voted to launch a feasibility study into the rooms.

However, a panel at the Drugs and Alcohol Today conference, held at the Amex this week, spoke out against the plans with the majority of the two hundred delegates in agreement.

Panel member and Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, Katy Bourne, said: “The problem I have is that you are effectively asking the police to turn a blind eye.

“If someone has a drug in their pocket going into this centre, then that is illegal.”

Nick Smart, chief executive of Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust, said that the proposal had provided the media with a talking point without exploring the more pressing problems with addiction.

He added: “The debate is more complex than that.”

However it was Mr Winter who was the proposal’s biggest critic.

He said: “I think there is an issue of priorities when we want to do something far more positive with addiction and recovery.”

The result of the feasibility study will be reported back to the council later in the year.