A New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into the need for drug rehabilitation centres has heard drug users lack treatment options in the state's far west.

The issue has long been a concern for community leaders, some of whom formed a working group to lobby for more rehabilitation services.

The closest rehabilitation centre to Broken Hill is near the Victorian border, three hours away.

The next closest options are Port Augusta in South Australia or Brewarrina in western NSW.

Broken Hill Mayor Darriea Turley is a member of the working group and gave evidence at a hearing in the city on Thursday.

She told the committee there was enormous pressure on the local public health system to address drug dependence.

"There's a huge reliance on the health service with limited money," Cr Turley said.

"An innovative model with a holistic approach, different from rehabilitation centres in the city, is needed out here."

Growing ice problem

Many of the submissions focused on the rising use of the drug ice, with Salvation Army Rural Chaplain David Pullin saying it could be cheaper and easier to access than alcohol.

He said drug and alcohol abuse was a larger problem than it was 10 years ago.

"Our records show it's greater than it's ever been," he said.

There is no residential drug rehabilitation facility within several hundred kilometres of Broken Hill. ( ABC News: Gavin Coote )

Mindy Sotiri from the Broken Hill Community Restorative Centre, which works with released prisoners, said ice was as problematic as heroin in the 1990s.

"There are lots of barriers to being able to take part in programs in the community and what tends to end up happening is that people wind up back in the criminal justice system," Dr Sotiri said.

"Prisons and jails are just unbelievably expensive, not just in terms of the actual operational costs, but all of the costs associated with imprisonment.

"Not only do people lose housing, lose employment, lose connection with family, but there's a greater likelihood that you will have contact with police and contact with courts if you go to prison."

Local solicitor Rachel Storey told committee members the local prison could not manage the problem.

"[It is] bursting at the seams, lacks support, money and the provision of medication to treat prisoners with psychosis brought on by drug abuse," she said.

"There's a focus on bricks and mortar, but there has to be a commitment to preventative measures."

Drug users need to 'heal'

Bronnie Taylor, the committee clerk, Greg Donnelly, Paul Green and Courtney Houssos listen to evidence. ( ABC News: Angela Bates )

One of the main arguments for building a centre in Broken Hill was that Indigenous people are less likely to complete rehabilitation if they have to leave their country and family.

Dr Sotiri said there was a need for a facility in the far west that not only helped with addiction, but also addressed intergenerational trauma and nurtured culture in Aboriginal people.

"Across NSW and other parts of Australia, healing centres are one of the approaches that seem for Indigenous communities to be actually making a real difference in terms of identifying the importance of connection to family and community and to land," she said.

"[They recognise] the way in which culture and identifying with culture can be a little bit of an anchor for life in the community, as opposed to the in and out of prison cycle that so many people get caught up in."

The inquiry has also been to Bateman's Bay, Nowra and Dubbo, and will travel to Grafton, Lismore and Sydney before producing a final report.