Overdosing on oxycodone is easy because it essentially puts “your brain to sleep,” an addiction expert said.

“Your brain stops sending messages to your lungs to breathe and you die,” said Luke Nasta, head of the Camelot addiction treatment center on Staten Island. “It’s that simple.”

Pharmacist Laura Balsamini said that for people over 65 or under 18, it takes as little as 40 milligrams to OD. But for more experienced users, she said, it could take “hundreds.”

The pills can be crushed up and snorted or melted and injected for a quicker, but more deadly, effect.

“It hits the bloodstream faster for a quicker high,” Balsamini said.