A young woman who died after “double dunking” three MDMA tablets at a Sydney music festival reached out for help and was left alone hours before she died, an inquest has heard.

Alex Ross-King, 19, started drinking vodka on an empty stomach on the morning of January 12 this year and took MDMA tablets while on a bus from the NSW Central Coast to Parramatta’s FOMO event.

In a heatwave described as “an oven”, an inquest into the MDMA-related deaths of six young people today heard she partied at the event before crashing hours later and trying to call for help.

The deaths of six young people are being investigated in an inquest over whether medical treatment was adequate and appropriate, and if effective harm minimisation strategies were in place at multiple NSW music festivals. (9News)

In a jumbled text message to her friends, she mentioned being in a shaded area.

“Bro, can someone just me from under the tree (sic),” she said in the message.

“Please, someone.”

Hours later, Ms Ross-King had died after going into cardiac arrest. Today it was revealed she had taken the three tablets before entering the FOMO event because she had been scared of being caught by police drug-detection dogs.

That reaction, which has been described by criminologists as common among young people at music festivals, caused one expert to tell the inquest earlier today that the use of police dogs does not help to reduce harm and increase public health and safety for people who attend the events.

The inquest today heard Alex Ross-King, 19, took three MDMA tablets before entering the Sydney FOMO festival because she was scared of police drug dogs, and called for help hours before she died. (PR IMAGE)

Dr Caitlin Hughes from the UNSW National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre today said the police use of dogs does little to increase safety.

“(It) was the strategy associated with the most perverse effects,” she said.

“The use of police drug-detection dogs at festival settings is probably the strategy to be least used if your central goal is reducing harm and improving public health and safety.

“Police use of drug detection dogs was associated with increased purchasing (of drugs) within festival grounds.”

Dr Hughes also voiced her opposition to the argument that drug-detection dogs used by police at festivals is working to limit the supply of illicit substances.

The use of police drug-detection dogs at music festivals does not increase levels of public health and safety, one criminologist told the inquest. (AAP)

While giving evidence at the inquest, she highlighted the findings of an analysis of criminal incidents recorded by police between 2008 and 2018 that revealed the “vast majority” of offences connected to police dogs included young people in possession of drugs.

From that analysis, 86.4 per cent of all incidents included drug users in possession of an illicit substance, while just four per cent covered individuals supplying them to others.

“(I have) cautioned against the deployment (of dogs) at festival settings because of the known harms that can eventuate,” Dr Hughes told the inquest.

The findings were also supported by Dr Monica Barratt, a senior research fellow at Melbourne’s RMIT University, who told the inquest earlier today that MDMA has accounted for the second-highest number of festival-goers seeking emergency medical treatment.

The findings of an analysis of criminal incidents between 2008 and 2018 found the 'vast majority' of offences connected to police dogs included young people in possession of drugs. (AAP)

In a survey of more than 5000 people who attended Australian music festivals, Dr Barratt said 4.3 per cent of people sought medical treatment in the past 12 months for issues relating to alcohol, followed by 2.5 per cent for MDMA.

Adding to that, she also told the inquest that on average festival-goers were found to consume 15 standard alcohol drinks at events – or three-times the recommended limit – and an average of three MDMA pills were taken in a single session.

“There’s no safe way you can guarantee, 100 per cent, that nothing bad will happen,” she said.

“There’s no way of knowing anything that has a risk is going to be safe in that incidence… We can’t go forward with this idea there’s 100 per cent safety.