When Judge Tony Capizzi isn’t handing down verdicts in the kitchen, he has his hands full offering tough love from the bench.

“When you first walk into the courtroom, you aren’t going to like me and I don’t need to be their best friend,” said Judge Capizzi.

For 13 years, he has served as a juvenile judge for Montgomery County.

This summer he will be named president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

“We are on the forefront, we are progressive, we are doing it right here," Judge Capizzi told Court News Ohio-TV.  “And although there are things we can always learn, I’m proud to say we are right up there in the top two or three states in the country on how we work with children and families.”

Judge Capizzi is faced with a tough reality. While the state of Ohio has the most opioid overdoses in the nation, Montgomery County, his county, has the most in the state.

“For those people who think that people just can stop using, that it’s their fault they are using, it isn’t always that way,” said Judge Capizzi.

This judge keeps it real.

When a child using walks into his courtroom, he shows pictures of Dayton children who have been in his drug court, and died at the hands of drugs.

So tough love? Yes.

But don’t think he lacks compassion.

“I know we can make a difference. It’s maintaining that,” he said.