Sass – Converting Hex to RGBa for background opacity

I have the following Sass mixin, which is a half complete modification of an RGBa example:

@mixin background-opacity($color, $opacity: .3) {
    background: rgb(200, 54, 54); /* The Fallback */
    background: rgba(200, 54, 54, $opacity);
} 

I have applied $opacity ok, but now I am a stuck with the $color part.
The colors I will be sending into the mixin will be HEX not RGB.

My example use will be:

element {
    @include background-opacity(#333, .5);
}

How can I use HEX values within this mixin?