Here's a question that has been bugging me for some time:

Do you need the Chem Use skill to actually use that various drugs/chems, use as in injecting them into you/your fellow acolyte? I've read both the rulebook and the Inquisitor's Handbook, and cannot seem to make sense of the skill description. The Arbites and Assassins for example both start with a couple of doses of Stimm, but neither can acquire the Chem Use skill at Rank 1. Or perhaps you need an injector/chem wand/whatever gizmodo to apply chemicals without the skill?

To my knowledge and read of it, Chem use is really only for making the drugs, or using chemicals in weird ways (like home made explosions, etc), or loading a thing of Stimm properly. It doesn't take much to go "Oh hey, theres my vein, make sure there's no air in the needle, and stab!"

In the DH Handbook (pg 99) it says that you need the Chem-Use skill to properly prepare or apply a chemical (full round). That you need to test against Chem-Use to do so. It also states that this goes for toxins, poisons and drugs. But I am assuming this is for some raw drugs or chemicals....

Enter the Injector!!! (pg 148 DH) With this little gem of a device your buddy with Chem-Use can properly enter a sweet dose of whatever chemical you want to use then just give it to you and viola! In a half-round you zing yourself with some tasty drugs and don't fall over dead.

Now if nobody has Chem-Use and you trusted some Hiver drug slinger to load the Injector for you it'd be up to your GM to decide whether or not he did a good job of it or accidentally gave you a 'hot dose'.

But, without an injector and someone skilled at dosing it, you need Chem-Use for applying drugs to yourself. (Well... Except maybe Lho-Sticks)

So if your character is considered the 'Doctor' of the group, Chem-Use is a pretty useful skill to pick up. That, and a bunch of injectors.

Edit: I'm also going to assume that the listed drugs are already pre-dosed and in an injector ready for use.

In the DH Handbook (pg 99) it says that you need the Chem-Use skill to properly prepare or apply a chemical (full round). That you need to test against Chem-Use to do so. It also states that this goes for toxins, poisons and drugs. But I am assuming this is for some raw drugs or chemicals....

I could get behind that ruling - until now I read it as even using an injector requiring a Chem-Use test. But requiring chem-use for filling an injector or somehow giving a person a shot when there's no ordinary transfer method readily available sounds fine.

I would generally go with a dose of a drug, especially combat oriented ones, is sold in a one time use injector that is "Stab and Play" or in a form so that it can be loaded into a reusable injector without any real knowledge.

Reloading and dosing correctly an injector with non-prepackaged "medicine", so it does not kill its user or tampering with one so that is does, should need a chem use test.