#Python Convert datetime to Unix Epoch Timestamp

There doesn’t seem to be a way to get a Unix timestamp directly from a datetime object in Python, the best workaround example I could find is:

from datetime import datetime
import time

now = datetime.now()
u = str(long(time.mktime(now.timetuple())))

This gets the timestamp as a string, it seems a bit long winded, so if anybody knows a better way please let me know!