- I still remember the moment I first did heroin.
I was 26, and I came home from work.
My roommate, I came in and her fiance was there
and he was shooting heroin with his friends
at the kitchen table.
And I was like, "Oh, I wanna try that."
And I still remember the first moment
and leanin' up against the door jamb
and I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.
And I knew I would do that every chance I got
for the rest of my life.
My name is Judy, and I am a woman in long-term recovery.
Drugs, you know, they were like this filter
between me and the world, and I embraced that.
Because my world was abusive and cruel.
All of a sudden my life wasn't my own anymore.
And I found myself doing things I thought I would never do.
I OD'd so many times, seizures, OD's, it was awful.
I turned into a person that I despised.
So it's 2013, it's March,
and I'm shop lifting in a Walmart.
I had just scored, I had heroin and meth on me.
I get arrested and the police find those and they said,
"No way you're goin' home tonight."
And they took me to Pima county jail,
which was one jail I'd never been in.
I had long, stringy black hair.
I weighed 95 pounds.
Half my teeth were gone.
I was very ill, I could hardly walk.
I was in bad withdrawal and the judge looked at me
and he said,
"I'm gonna' give you an opportunity,
to get yourself together.
And I suggest you take advantage of it."
And he let me go home.
I started the journey to get clean.
It was very hard, I was frail.
My detox lasted me a year.
But you know, I just couldn't live like that anymore.
I was so sick of myself.
I was so sick of the way I was living.
And I worked the steps, and I changed,
and I became someone else.
In 2016, I started workin'.
I got a decent job and I got my rights restored.
And I got the charge from 2013 dismissed.
It was like the state of Arizona decided to forgive me.
And I thanked the judge.
I said, "Your honor, thank you, you know I'm so grateful."
And he said,
"You made it so easy for me."
Today, my life is so different.
I have this wonderful boyfriend.
It's the first healthy relationship I've ever had.
And every morning I get up and I thank God and the universe,
with the life that I have today.
I think when you've had a life like mine and,
you've gone down that road.
How can you be anything but grateful?