Fifteen years after he convened a historic parliamentary drug summit, former NSW premier Bob Carr has called for a new summit  to tackle the state's emerging ice crisis.

It is Mr Carr whose reforms, most notably the Kings Cross medically supervised injecting room, were credited with saving Sydney from the grip of a full-scale heroin epidemic.

"I'm normally opposed to summits by way of making policy but this one, in 1999, was a spectacular success," he told The Sun-Herald last week. "It saved lives, it got people off their addictions and it better managed them while they were still drug dependent."

While heroin dominated debate and discussion at the five-day inquiry 15 years ago, Mr Carr acknowledges that today's politicians and policymakers face an entirely different set of challenges. Of the unfolding ice epidemic, he said: "We are looking at two problems here, namely management and solution.

"I would strongly recommend to both sides of politics that after the state election – whatever the outcome, they reassemble a convincing summit with a full spectrum of views, experience and expertise ... so every treatment and management option is on the table. And flashing in neon above the Speaker's chair should be one very short, simple question ... 'is there a better way?' Because that was the spirit of the 1999 summit - and we found there were many better ways."

Mr Carr beat Neville Wran's record as longest-serving NSW Premier and delivered the Sydney Olympics. But when he looks back on his political career, he ranks the drug summit and flow-on effect among his "very proudest achievements".

"We were in a position back then at Kings Cross where people were dying daily in alleyways and car parks.  It [the injecting centre] made life far easier for paramedics who had to go and handle high-risk situations in the streets. It defined heroin dependency as a medical problem and it provided a portal for treatment."

In the past week, health experts such as Australian Drug Law Reform  Foundation president Alex Wodak have joined growing calls for the summit to take place, stating: "We have lost our way." So far, Premier Mike Baird has refused to commit to an inquiry, if elected, while the Labor opposition has.

Mr Carr argues that not only is a summit the best way forward, it is the most "efficient".

"Given the way governments spend money, particularly in the health area, getting people to come in under their own steam ... to share their expertise ... is a far more cost-effective way of reviewing policy than handing everything over to consultancy firms."

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