Beth Cintron's life was a mess.
As a shy teenager from Conestoga, she began drinking, then partying.
By the time she was in her 20s, she was a full-fledged crack addict, she told about 35 people Tuesday at the Heritage & Horizons adult educational series at Church of the Apostles UCC.
The drugs controlled her life. She woke in the mornings sick with cravings. She spent whatever money she could get, steal or sell herself for to feed her addiction.
There was one failed marriage and the two children she abandoned. A third, crack-addicted baby died. There was a second marriage to a fellow crack addict and another child.
Four years ago, she had hit bottom.
Her husband in jail, it was her father who found her one day in an apartment strewn with trash and dirty clothing and took her and her baby home. That night, she still went out to get high.
It was only after being arrested, early the next morning, that she began to turn her life around.
She had been clean four months when she stood before Judge David Ashworth and asked to be admitted to the county's Adult Drug Court program. But, even then, she was in denial about the power of her addiction.
"Drug Court saved my life because I went through a lot of struggles that first year," Cintron, now 31, told the audience.
"If I wouldn't have had that constant supervision in my life, I wouldn't have made it."
Drug Court was the first of five Lancaster County issues and concerns to be addressed in the church's five-week educational series.
Ashworth presented Cintron as a success story to the education class of mostly older people. She is one of 37 people to have completed the intensive year-long course since it began nearly four years ago.
Ashworth, who presides over Drug Court every Tuesday afternoon, updated the group on the program and provided statistics.
There are 50 current participants in Drug Court. They represent one-third of those who have been accepted into the program since its inception. There have been 14,000 observed drug tests performed, of which 97 percent have been negative.
The participants have a recidivism rate less than half of that of other criminals. Nearly half of program participants are employed, they are more likely to complete treatment programs and are far less likely to spend time in jail, he said.
It costs about $5,000 for someone to go through the Drug Court program. It costs between $20,000-$30,000 to keep them in prison for a year, Ashworth said.
"You can see the economics. If you can get someone to be successful, it benefits everyone," the judge said.
Ashworth said the statistic he is most proud of is the five babies who have been born free of drugs.
One of those babies was Cintron's.
"I can't believe that this is my life sometimes," she said.
At her lowest point, Cintron was convinced she would have to die to end her crack cocaine addiction. Now, she works as a nurse at an alcohol detox center, is taking college psychology courses with plans to counsel prison inmates, supports and is being supported by her husband, who is also recovering from his addiction, and cares for her four children and her ill grandmother.
It was the support of others — and the expectation of daily accountability — in the program that allowed Cintron to succeed, she said.
Cintron said she still sometimes feels the desire to return to drugs to escape the pains and pressures of life. She will never fully escape her addiction, she said.
Yet, she hopes to share her story with others to help them.
"I think I'm a miracle and I think God put me through that for a reason, and I'm going to use it any way I can," she said.
Ashworth, who also presides over criminal and civil court cases, said he would prefer to spend all his time doing Drug Court because it is the most rewarding part of his job.
Based on the county's experience with Drug Court, Lancaster is planning to start a mental health court next year and later a juvenile court based on the same model, he said.
The Heritage & Horizons series meets each Tuesday morning through Oct. 28, from 9:30 to 11:45 a.m., at the Church of the Apostles, United Church of Christ, 1850 Marietta Ave. The cost to attend the series is $10.
Staff writer Bernard Harris can be reached at bharris@LNPnews.com or 481-6022.
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