In the short run, the rising price will cause a drop in demand, but this drop will be minimal—because of the very nature of addiction. An addict, by definition, is extremely reluctant to abandon his or habit, even in the face of skyrocketing prices. Each addict's Personal Demand Schedule is therefore close to vertical (within the relevant price range). As a consequence, the Market Demand Schedule, derived by aggregating the Demand Schedules of the individual users, is also nearly vertical. The hypothetical graphs below illustrate the differing shapes of the demand schedules for a nonaddictive product and an addictive product.
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