Music festival organisers may have to pay for sniffer dogs to sweep the grounds for drugs before an event, New South Wales Police Minister Troy Grant says.

Mr Grant, who is also Deputy Premier, told Parliament current laws meant sniffer dogs could only be used on the day of an event, and they could not go past the front gate of the venue.

"A user-pays system to allow dogs to sweep the ground for drugs - including those drugs stashed onsite before the festival commences - is a common sense initiative to help us tackle this issue," he said.

"It is time for festival organisers to step up to help us stem the drug supply at the festival gates."

Mr Grant was critical of Opposition MP Jo Haylen who suggested sniffer dogs be replaced at music festivals with pill-testing machines.

Ms Haylen made the call at the Labor Party state annual conference on the weekend.

She said sniffer dogs made drug users engage in riskier behaviour and were often ineffective.

In response to Ms Haylen's call, the Police Minister said: "In this place you are a lawmaker, not someone that should encourage others to be a lawbreaker."

"This Government will not run a quality assurance scheme using taxpayers' dollars to prop up the profits of drug dealers."

Seven Australians in the past year have died after taking what is believed to be ecstasy. Six had been at music festivals.

But Mr Grant denied his Government's strategy was failing.

"Since 2014, sniffer dogs have detected more than 460 kilograms of drugs," he said.

"[Ms Haylen's] reckless calls for pill testing at festivals oversimplifies this very complex issue.

"Knowing what is in your illegal drugs doesn't make it safe, and it gives those using illegal drugs a very dangerous sense of security about popping these pills."