Daniel Storey, 28, crashed head on into a car killing passenger Amanda Coulter, an act described by a judge as "downright wicked".
Outside Mold Crown Court Amanda's devastated parents said after the sentence that they had lost their "treasured princess".
Mother Angela said: "There are no words to describe the emptiness and devastation Daniel Storey has caused. We are all facing a life sentence unlike him."
Emotions had been running high since the crash on the Abergele straight near Rhuddlan, and a petition was handed into the court call for a maximum 14-year sentence for Storey.
Storey, of Clwyd Avenue, Rhuddlan, entered the dock on crutches, and with one leg in a frame and still incapacitated. At the time of the accident he was more than twice the drink drive limit, had cocaine in his blood, and had no insurance.
Storey, who has a previous conviction for drink driving, admited causing the death of nursery nurse, Amanda 21.
She was travelling in a Peugeot 206 along the A547 from Rhuddlan when Storey overtook a tractor and trailer crashing head on into a Vauxhall Astra driven by Jack Wall.
Miss Coulton was killed instantly and Mr Wall was badly injured.
Another motorist described Storey's driving as "suicidal and absolutely crazy".
Stephen Powell, who was overtaken by Storey's vehicle, told police he was "haring along" well in excess of the 60 mph speed limit and felt quite lucky that he was not involved in the collision.
David Mainstone, prosecuting, said Storey had returned home from work at about 5 pm, told his wife he was going out, and after he left she realised that her car was missing from the drive. He did not have a licence to drive and it was not taxed or insured.
It was at 9.55 pm as he drove home from the Ty Fry public house at Bodelwyddan, where he said he had drunk three pints of lager, that the crash occurred. A blood sample showed that Storey had 189 miligrammes of alcohol in his blood, compared to the legal limit of 80.
He also had 0.049 miligrammes of cocaine in his blood, although he denied taking drugs and had no explanation for how it got there. But the two together would cause impairment, said Mr Mainstone.
The defendant recalled having a can of lager at home, three pints of lager at the pub, and the next thing he recalled was waking up in hospital.
The court heard how Storey had motoring convictions from 1994, two convictions for driving while disqualified in 1997 and 1999, a conviction for drink driving in March 2001 when he was banned from driving for three years, and he also had a conviction for possessing cannabis in 1995.
Duncan Bould, defending, said that his client never wanted to drive again. His best mitigation was his guilty plea.