An association representing hemp farmers and businesses is seeking to educate law enforcement and financial institutions about the difference between industrial hemp and marijuana, the latter of which is illegal under federal law and most states.

The Hemp Industries Association announced Wednesday that it was expanding its "Hemp is Legal" campaign to target law enforcement, banks and other financial institutions. The campaign was launched earlier this year to get Facebook to ease its restrictions on advertising hemp products—including hemp-derived cannabidiol or CBD—which the company since has.

Hemp contains less than 0.3 percent THC, the chemical in marijuana that produces psychoactive effects, according to the association. That isn't enough to intoxicate people but still enough to alert drug-sniffing dogs or produce a positive result on most police tests for the substance. The group says hemp vendors are still being stopped and raided by law enforcement agencies despite the legality of the crop, and there are no clear rules to prohibit financial intuitions from discriminating against the businesses.

"We cannot continue to allow law enforcement and financial institutions to draw incorrect conclusions about the legal hemp industries," HIA Executive Director, Colleen Keahey Lanier said in a statement. "It is a huge disruption to the legal hemp industries nationwide, including hemp farmers and businesses."

HIA did not say what form the expanded campaign would take. The group has established a website—HempisLegal.org—and, when it was targeting Facebook, kicked off an advertising campaign with digital billboards in New York City's Times Square.

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