A New South Wales Labor MP has called for police to stop using sniffer dogs to target drug users, arguing it leads to overdoses and deaths.

Jo Haylen used a debate on health policy at the party's annual state conference to launch a stinging attack on the NSW Government's approach to the issue.

Ms Haylen, member for Summer Hill, told the 850 delegates gathered at Sydney's Town Hall that sniffer dogs only made drug users engage in even riskier behaviour.

"Sniffer dogs are ineffective," she said.

"They're wrong three quarters of the time, causing unnecessary interactions between police and young people.

"They scare young people into ingesting all of their drugs at once, and cause unnecessary over-doses."

She said the intensified presence of police at music festivals and other major events had the same effect and called for amnesty bins and pill-testing at music festivals to be introduced.

"Rather than ruining lives with a criminal record or worse still, leaving people to take risks on their own, let's be brave," Ms Haylen said.

"Let's make good evidence based public policy and once again make NSW a world leader when it comes to harm minimisation,"

Ms Haylen also said sniffer dogs were used to target young people and the gay and lesbian community.

The Opposition's health spokesman Walt Secord said Ms Haylen's position does not represent ALP policy on the issue.

In recent months, NSW policy and police tactics have come into question following the death of a woman at the Stereosonic music festival and calls to rethink drug-driving laws.

She took aim at road-side drug testing saying it "hurls people into the legal system for having the most minute traces of drugs in their system, but operates without a shred of evidence to prove it reduces the number of accidents."