A substance misuse expert is calling for a national rehab pilot scheme to help tackle the growing drug deaths crisis.

Rowdy Yates believes residential rehab centres will reduce fatalities after statistics released by the National Records of Scotland in July showed the number of drug-related deaths in the country last year was 1187 - the largest ever recorded and more than double the number a decade ago.

However, two rehabilitation centres have told STV News they are struggling to continue due to lack of financial support.

Mr Yates, who has worked in the field for more than 45 years, told Scotland Tonight on Thursday there are not enough rehab services available to Scots.

He said: "The solution would be for the Scottish Government to establish a pilot programme where it funded nationally, for a period of two to three years, with inbuilt research to measure the outcomes and take it out of the hands of local decision-makers."

Mr Yates, of the European Federation of Therapeutic Communities, stated that rehab services would be more cost-effective in the long-run compared to methadone treatments.

He said: "Although the upfront costs appear to be quite high, in fact residential rehabilitation is probably cheaper than any other intervention in the long-term as recovery rates are so much higher."

Mr Yates stated that addicts are paying the ultimate cost of funding cuts.

He said: "We're paying the price for it. We're paying in young people's deaths."

Mr Yates added with residential rehabilitation being "squeezed and squeezed", we are now in danger of "losing the very few we have left now".

A drug treatment unit that opens its doors to recovering addicts from across Scotland is warning that the current service is unsustainable without proper backing.

Despite recovery rates that exceed the national average, Jericho House in Greenock, Renfrewshire, receives no statutory funding.

In desperation, those behind the abstinence-based recovery project have begun to sell off other properties to survive.

Manager Michael Trail told STV News: "Desperate is the word I would use. We are in a desperate situation and we don't have anything left to sell."

He added that the service was promised money by previous Scottish Government ministers and from proceeds of crime initiatives, but it never materialised.

Mr Trail said a single local authority has used 42% of the 670-bed spaces in the last 17 years, but had never paid a penny.

The bill for each person is £250 per week, with most residents staying for six months.

Additional funding has been promised for alcohol and drug partnerships and Scotland's public health minister Joe FitzPatrick is set to visit Jericho House later this month.

Jericho House uses group-working and one-to-one sessions.

The programme includes education, sport and leisure activities, and complementary therapies.

Mark, from East Dunbartonshire, has an addiction spanning 30 years.

Following years of chronic health problems as a result of injecting, he is now trying to get his life back on track at Jericho House.

He said: "I'm very lucky I kept my legs this time.

"I had been warned for the last ten years that I'm going to lose my legs but I couldn't stop [injecting].

"I actually came in two days late [to rehab] because I was in Glasgow Royal."

Mark first tried alcohol and cannabis when he was 11-years-old. He abused heroin at 17.

He said: "I've actually come off it a couple of times through my own willpower but I wouldn't last long because I wouldn't open up.

"I wouldn't tell anyone how I was feeling and I'd kind of hold on, hold on then it'd get too much and I'd end up picking it back up."

Mark knows that if he uses again then the consequences will be severe.

He added: "I think it's hard just now but I know the hard work will begin when I go back into the community, but it's about keeping in contact with people."

Abbeycare Scotland - a private provider of drug and alcohol rehabilitation - also has concerns about funding and barriers to long-term treatment.

Based at Murdostoun Castle in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, service users can access a detox bed within hours of making a phone call - but they will need thousands of pounds.

Admissions manager Gordon Peacock said the service was under-occupied.

He said: "Every 20 phone calls, one may be able to afford to come to the clinic themselves. And we get hundreds of phone calls a month."

Abbeycare now rarely takes referrals from local authorities and those who try that route face months of red tape.

Service director Liam Mehigan said: "We are certainly frustrated, concerned because we know the value of this type of service.

"Residential rehab saves lives and changes lives.

"We would be open to meeting with any commissioners to discuss spot purchasing of beds.

"If residential rehabilitation services aren't further invested in, we may find ourselves with even more of them closing."

James, an Abbeycare service user, stated: "My spirit was completely broken. I mean, I couldn't function.

"I had to come in somewhere and start from the beginning. It's difficult, but it's worth it."

Many service users return for aftercare for much-needed support.

James added: "People have not got a chance to tap into services.

"A lot are in a working environment, are in jobs and are hiding their addiction or not wanting to speak to anyone about the struggles that they are having so they are never going to be included in these sort of numbers because they are sort of hidden."

Sean, whose cocaine addiction became impossible to hide, entered Abbeycare after finding NHS help difficult to access.

He said: "I found myself in here as a result of people that love me.

"If you had asked me at that time did I want help, I would have said no because I'd given up.

"I waited six months and I got a reply saying [the NHS] wouldn't be able to offer me a methadone prescription.

"I wasn't on opiate-based drugs, I wasn't on heroin, so I didn't need a methadone prescription.

"My confidence in the NHS for addiction just went out the window and I thought nobody can help me now."

The possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use should be decriminalised, according to MPs.

The Scottish Affairs Committee believes the move will help address the root causes of problem drug use.

The committee's report, published earlier this month, made a series of recommendations following an extensive inquiry into drug use in Scotland.

As well as decriminalisation and the introduction of safe drug consumption rooms, the report also said the Scottish Government must do more to ensure drug services within its responsibilities are "properly funded and supported".

It said Scottish Government decisions, such as cutting funding for Alcohol and Drug Partnerships in its 2016/17 Budget, have "made the situation worse".

The report added: "If the Scottish Government wants to call for more powers to tackle the drug crisis, it must demonstrate that it is doing everything within the powers it already has."

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "We want to ensure everyone who requires drug rehabilitation treatment has access to it which is why we have invested £800m to tackle alcohol and drug use since 2008, with over £70m available in this financial year to help reduce the harms caused by substance misuse.

"We've also committed a further £20m over the next two years to support local services and provide targeted support.

"We are clear that Alcohol and Drug Partnerships must provide services based on local need - with tailored support to those who require it.

"By learning from those with lived experience we can help reduce problem substance use and its associated harms."