medical cannabis an oxymoron physicians perceptions of medical cannabis background medical cannabis policies are changing in many places around the world and physicians play a major role in the implementation of these policies the aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of physicians views on medical cannabis and its possible integration into their clinic as well as to identify potential underlying factors that influence these perceptionsmethods qualitative narrative analysis of indepth interviews with twentyfour israeli physicians from three specialties pain medicine oncology and family medicinefindings physicians disclosed contrasting narratives of cannabis presenting it as both a medicine and a nonmedicine these divergent positions coexisted and were intertwined in physicians accounts when presenting cannabis as a nonmedicine physicians drew on conventional medicine and prohibition as narrative environments they emphasized the incongruence of cannabis with standards of biomedicine and presented cannabis as an addictive drug of abuse in contrast physicians drew upon unconventional medicine and palliative care as narrative environments while presenting cannabis as a medicine in this narrative physicians emphasized positive handson experiences with cannabis and pointed to the limits of conventional medicineconclusion physicians did not have a consolidated perspective as to whether cannabis is a medicine or not but rather struggled with this question the dualistic narratives of cannabis reflect the lack of a dominant narrative environment that supports the integration of cannabis into medical practice this may in turn indicate barriers to the implementation of medical cannabis policies an awareness of physicians views and the different levels of their willingness to implement medical cannabis policies is essential for policy developments in this evolving field