GIS 4930 - Project 3: Prepare - Statistical Analysis of Methamphetamine Laboratory Busts

"Most illicit drugs present two serious problems for society. First are the many consequences of drug use for the user, the community, and society as a whole. Second is the violence that accompanies the business of drugs that are transported across national borders through elaborate networks. Methamphetamine contributes to both problems, but in many parts of the country it presents another serious problem, namely the social and environmental damage that comes from domestic methamphetamine production." Methamphetamine Laboratories: The Geography of Drug Production - Ralph A. Weisheit and L. Edward Wells

For this week’s portion of Project 3: Prepare, we were tasked with preparing for a Statistical Analysis of Methamphetamine Laboratory Busts in West Virginia, USA. The final report for this module will consist of a fully constructed multi paged scientific analysis of the West Virginia study area comparing specific census tract demographics to the location of reported meth lab clusters. This analysis will serve to solidify any doubt in regards to medical, property and economical damage, that this drug and the drugs creation processes has wrought on West Virginia over the last few decades. I look forward to performing this analysis and to next week’s ordinary least square regression model creation.

Below is a constructed basemap of the study area with all essential map elements for the module 3 project.