It's about bloody time.

At long last, one of Australia's political leaders has found the courage to say the bleeding obvious: the "war on drugs" has failed.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale is taking a sensible, thoughtful approach to the huge problem of drugs. Credit:Andrew Meares

It's been nearly half a century since US President Richard Nixon popularised the term and just what has been achieved in that time?

This war has filled our prisons with people who more often than not just need help but are instead locked up with hardened criminals. It has ruined lives, families and careers while turning scumbag dealers into millionaires. It has wasted countless police hours, time that could have been much better spent going after those scumbags, not to mention murderers and rapists and child molesters. It has cost taxpayers many billions of dollars, money that could have been better spent on hospitals and schools.