It is high time for the Australian government to reconfigure its strategy in neutralising the illegal drugs trade, a new report said, which also highlighted the seeming successes that organised crime groups have achieved against legal efforts to stem their operations.

In a new report it released on Tuesday, non-profit group Australia21 has asserted that the nation's fight against illegal drugs has largely failed, virtually leading into a general situation where criminal elements have gained the upper hand.

Authorities should be able to dictate the tempo of the war against drugs if the government is in full control of the inflow of narcotics into the country, the Australia21 report said.

Australia21, according to Nicholas Cowdery, now recommends for a scenario in which authorities were legally supervising and controlling the drug trade - which also means the government wields regulatory and taxation authority over drug sellers.

Mr Cowdery, however, clarified that he only envisions partial decriminalisation of the whole drug trade, with regulators ensuring the placement of mechanisms that would restrict the availability of drug products.

The former New South Wales public prosecutor stressed that Australia21 would not want the see the liberal proliferation of drugs and make them easily accessible to everyone.

"A first step towards such a regime could be decriminalisation, similar to the approach adopted 10 years ago in Portugal or an adaptation of that approach," Mr Cowdery was reported by The Daily Telegraph as saying on Tuesday.

Also, Australia21 claimed that its position enjoys the backing of prominent personalities, chief of which is Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who also served as NSW premier and was quite open about his sad experience with illegal drugs.

Mr Carr lost a brother due to heroine overdose, The Telegraph said.

If he were to directly tackle the drug menace, Mr Carr said he would call for decriminalising low-level drug use while at the same time ensuring that the illegal substance would remain strictly regulated by authorities.

"A bit of modest decriminalisation, de facto decriminalisation at the edges, simply freeing up police to be doing the things they ought to be doing would be a sensible way of going about it," Mr Carr was quoted by The Telegraph as saying in describing his personal take on the matter.

As chief executive of NSW, Mr Carr instituted the administration of the substance to those hooked on drugs in order to give these people fair chance and "persuade them to give the stuff up and to enter treatment to get off it."

The federal government greeted the report with an open mind, with Attorney-General Nicola Roxon stressing that "as a government we're always interested and happy to engage in debate."

But Ms Roxon expressed doubts that decriminalising the drug trade, however partial or selective the measure may be, could attract enough support from important Australian sectors.

"There's a pretty high threshold that they're going to have to get over to convince not just the government but the community that this would be a positive step," Ms Roxon was quoted by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) as saying.

She added that frustrations met by authorities in efforts to quash the illegal drug trade were not sufficient reasons to legalise the selling of the dangerous substance.

"The fact that we have challenges in being able to stop illicit drugs doesn't necessarily mean that deregulating it entirely and making them legal is going to prove the right solution," Ms Roxon told ABC Radio in an interview.