TAC and THC are two percentages associated with a particular strain of cannabis. For example, at High Hopes we sell a strain of flower called Neville's Haze from a grower called Gibby's Garden, with a label that looks like this:#
TAC is short for "total active compounds" and should be the sum of all percentages of the psychoactive compounds in a particular strain. The most well known of these is THC, and is the number most people look at in order to understand how potent a particular strain might be.#
And in fact the majority of people tend to get very focused on the THC percentage number as a proxy for potency. This is understandable! It works for "proof" with alcohol, right? #
More experienced cannabis customers tend to understand that THC percentage and potency are related, but the relationship is a lot more complex than just "higher THC % = more potent". #
In the Neville's Haze example, 19.4% THC + 0.5% A9-THC + 0.6% CBGA + 0.1% CBG + 0.1% CBCA = 20.7% TAC.#
When I say metadata here what I mean is that these percentage numbers describe the strain, in the same way that when I call you, the phone number is metadata about the call but the call itself is different data. It's not a perfect analogy because cannabis isn't data, of course.#
Our POS/inventory software, LeafLogix, has the concept of a product master, which is basically a big bag of metadata about a particular product.#
And in that product master, you can enter the THC percentage for a cannabis product.#
Meanwhile, our online ordering software, Dutchie, has its own idea about metadata for flower, which is somewhat richer. #
In Dutchie, you can specify TAC, THC, and terpene percentages as well. #
Dutchie can be set up to pull product information out of LeafLogix automatically, so that when you enter metadata in LeafLogix, it automatically shows up on your online ordering software. This is a good thing.#
And by default Dutchie maps the LeafLogix "THC" field to the Dutchie "THC" field, which seems reasonable.#
Here's where things get dicey, though: what number should you actually enter into LeafLogix for THC when creating a product master for a product you start carrying?#
If you enter into LeafLogix's THC field the actual value for THC for the product, then Dutchie shows that value for THC in the online menu. #
This means that if the customer is looking for something with 19.4% THC online, and then buys Neville's Haze, opens it at home, and looks at the label, they will see 19.4% THC right there on the label, and all is good.#
Except: some dispensaries enter the value for TAC instead of THC into LeafLogix, because it's a larger number and customers are so often making their choice by looking for the largest THC percentage.#
Another solution might be to tell Dutchie to map LeafLogix's THC field into Dutchie's TAC field. Then Dutchie would list the percentage number with the label "TAC" instead of the label "THC".#
That seems like it might be an improvement, but it also would mean that Dutchie would display TAC but not THC. Customers look for THC but I think TAC doesn't mean as much to them.#
I think the solution I like best is to start entering all this information manually into Dutchie for now, instead of letting it sync from LeafLogix.#
Partly that's because we think we want to start entering terpene breakdown information into Dutchie as well -- also a kind of metadata that doesn't have a place in LeafLogix yet -- and so entering TAC and THC as well won't be that much extra work.#
This misalignment is sort of an understandable place to be given that LeafLogix and Dutchie were developed separately and their integration is imperfect.#
Now that they are the same company, this disconnect really needs to get addressed.#
TAC and THC are two percentages associated with a particular strain of cannabis. For example, at High Hopes we sell a strain of flower called Neville's Haze from a grower called Gibby's Garden, with a label that looks like this:#
TAC is short for "total active compounds" and should be the sum of all percentages of the psychoactive compounds in a particular strain. The most well known of these is THC, and is the number most people look at in order to understand how potent a particular strain might be.#
And in fact the majority of people tend to get very focused on the THC percentage number as a proxy for potency. This is understandable! It works for "proof" with alcohol, right? #
More experienced cannabis customers tend to understand that THC percentage and potency are related, but the relationship is a lot more complex than just "higher THC % = more potent". #
In the Neville's Haze example, 19.4% THC + 0.5% A9-THC + 0.6% CBGA + 0.1% CBG + 0.1% CBCA = 20.7% TAC.#
When I say metadata here what I mean is that these percentage numbers describe the strain, in the same way that when I call you, the phone number is metadata about the call but the call itself is different data. It's not a perfect analogy because cannabis isn't data, of course.#
Our POS/inventory software, LeafLogix, has the concept of a product master, which is basically a big bag of metadata about a particular product.#
And in that product master, you can enter the THC percentage for a cannabis product.#
Meanwhile, our online ordering software, Dutchie, has its own idea about metadata for flower, which is somewhat richer. #
In Dutchie, you can specify TAC, THC, and terpene percentages as well. #
Dutchie can be set up to pull product information out of LeafLogix automatically, so that when you enter metadata in LeafLogix, it automatically shows up on your online ordering software. This is a good thing.#
And by default Dutchie maps the LeafLogix "THC" field to the Dutchie "THC" field, which seems reasonable.#
Here's where things get dicey, though: what number should you actually enter into LeafLogix for THC when creating a product master for a product you start carrying?#
If you enter into LeafLogix's THC field the actual value for THC for the product, then Dutchie shows that value for THC in the online menu. #
This means that if the customer is looking for something with 19.4% THC online, and then buys Neville's Haze, opens it at home, and looks at the label, they will see 19.4% THC right there on the label, and all is good.#
Except: some dispensaries enter the value for TAC instead of THC into LeafLogix, because it's a larger number and customers are so often making their choice by looking for the largest THC percentage.#
Another solution might be to tell Dutchie to map LeafLogix's THC field into Dutchie's TAC field. Then Dutchie would list the percentage number with the label "TAC" instead of the label "THC".#
That seems like it might be an improvement, but it also would mean that Dutchie would display TAC but not THC. Customers look for THC but I think TAC doesn't mean as much to them.#
I think the solution I like best is to start entering all this information manually into Dutchie for now, instead of letting it sync from LeafLogix.#
Partly that's because we think we want to start entering terpene breakdown information into Dutchie as well -- also a kind of metadata that doesn't have a place in LeafLogix yet -- and so entering TAC and THC as well won't be that much extra work.#
This misalignment is sort of an understandable place to be given that LeafLogix and Dutchie were developed separately and their integration is imperfect.#
Now that they are the same company, this disconnect really needs to get addressed.#