Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US drugs) to roll an opium pellet preparatory to smoking.

1881		Harper’s Weekly 24 Sept. 646: Having brought it to a proper consistence, the operator, with a rapid, twirling motion of the fingers, rolls the mass, still upon the yen hanck, upon the broad surface of the bowl, submitting it occasionally to the flame, catching it now and then upon the edge of the bowl and pulling it out into strings, in order to cook it through more thoroughly. This is called chying the mass.
1886		‘Life in a New York Opium Den’ in T. Byrnes Professional Criminals of America 🌐 The pipe is held in the left hand and the bowl warmed over the light. The opium, in a melted condition, is rolled over the face of the bowl until it is shaped into a cone, the apex being the point of the needle. This is termed chying.
1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 126/2: tchi. To roll a pill of opium and prepare it for smoking.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.