Tiffany Hilton is set to graduate from Stetson University College of Law next spring, where she aspires to then begin working as a criminal defense attorney representing indigent clients. It’s a long way from where she was for nearly a decade, fighting off an addiction to opioids.

“I was living in my car,” she told Spectrum Bay News 9 about that dark time in her life. “My family didn’t speak to me. I was homeless. I didn’t know when I was going to eat next.”

Hilton, 35, is married and just weeks away from giving birth to her first child. Her future looks bright. And she says that she wants to represent people in need because she’s been there herself.

“The truth is that anybody could do what I’m doing – and that’s the main thing that I would want people to know. I was as low as I could possibly go, and now I’m here, and it was a lot of work. But I’m convinced that if I could do it, anyone could do it.”

In addition to her studies, Hilton is an editor for Stetson’s Law Review, participants on Stetson’s Trial Team, serves on the executive board of Stetson’s Student Bar Association, is a teaching assistant for a civil procedure class, and is in her last week as serving as an “extern” for Hillsborough County Judge Elizabeth Rice, who heads the 13^th’s Judicial Circuit’s Adult Drug Recovery Court.

The court treats and assists those with drug problem which have resulted in being charged with a 3^rd degree felony – but Rice says it’s not just for those who have been arrested for drug possession, but encompasses those who have drug taking “behaviors,” such as those who arrested on theft charges. “We want people who really have drug problems,” she says, adding that generally excludes those who are arrested for dealing narcotics.

The Drug Recovery program receives funding from the state of Florida. Judge Rice says that it’s important that the court are “good stewards” of that funding. “We have to make sure we’re spending that on a population who really want to get into rehabilitation.”

Hilton went through the Drug Pre-Trial Intervention program in 2012. It’s considered pre-adjudicatory, where those who successfully complete the program can have their criminal charges dropped. The Recovery Court is post-adjudicatory (Judge Rice presides over both programs currently in Hillsborough County). 

The first problem-solving court in the U.S. was created in Miami-Dade County in 1989. There are now more than 3,100 drug courts around the country, according to the U.S. Dept. of Justice. And problem-solving courts also now deal with mental illness, domestic violence, child abuse and homelessness.

Hilton says that more than anything else, she wants to be a positive and productive member of her community.

Hillsborough County Judge Elizabeth Rice says it’s important that people who have struggled with drugs and came through the other side make that connection to those who are dealing with addiction problems.

“We know that when individuals share stories, that makes a connection, and that’s powerful,” she says. "Stories are powerful. Tiffany wants to share her story, because she wants to give that other person encouragement."