The Heroin Emergency Life Project (HELP) arose, in 1971, as a joint project between those addicted to heroin on the Ave and those “straights” who wished to help, according to this report from the Berkeley Barb.
Like other projects such as the Berkeley Free Church and the Berkeley Free Clinic, HELP aimed to provide a less stodgy and more innovative alternative in the realm of social services. HELP, for instance, was interested in the (then-innovative) use of methodone as a treatment for heroin addiction and sought to publish a “street sheet” with material by addicts and former addicts.
Notably, a large crowd — 100 people — attended the meeting for this new organization at Moe’s Books. Among those hoping to get HELP off the ground were a sizable number of Telegraph merchants — Moe Moskowitz of Moe’s Books, Fred Cody of Cody’s Books, and “people from Hardcastle’s, Luigi’s, the Repertory Theatre, [and Caffe] Med,” according to the Barb.