A decade after initiating the nation's most comprehensive and aggressive antismoking program, per capita consumption of cigarettes in California declined from over 125 packs annually per person to about 60, a drop more than twice as great as in the nation as a whole.
A) per capita consumption of cigarettes in California declined from over 125 packs annually per person to about 60, a drop more than twice as great as
B) annual per capita consumption of cigarettes in California declined from over 125 packs to about 60, more than twice as great as that
C) California's annual per capita consumption of cigarettes declined from over 125 packs per person to about 60, more than twice as great as the drop
D) California has seen per capita consumption of cigarettes decline from over 125 packs annually to about 60, a drop more than twice as great as that
E) California has seen annual per capita consumption of cigarettes decline from over 125 packs per person to about 60, more than twice as great as that

I know following errors in choices:-
Choices A,C and E are wrong due to per capita and per person(both can not ber used and is redundant). I am not able to pinpoint correct answer between "B" and "D". Pls can you explain?

this is a very common error, so be sure that you can recognize it at once.

this sentence starts with a 'headless modifier' (headless in the sense that it doesn't have a subject). in sentences starting with such modifiers, the modifier MUST modify the noun immediately following the comma.

so, choice b implies that 'per-capita consumption of cigarettes' initiated the nation's most comprehensive antismoking program (clearly an absurdity). choice d, by contrast, correctly states that california initiated the program.

notice that the same consideration also eliminates choice a (which states that consumption initiated the program) and choice c (which states that CA's consumption initiated the program).

hi ron. i came down to choices D & E. Can you please tell whether the placement of annual in choice E is what makes it incorrect and makes D the better answer?

The problem with E is not the placement of "annual", but the failure to include a word like "drop". The modifier (the part after the comma) is "more than twice as great as that". But what is more than twice as great as what? It is not the number of packs which is more than twice as great, but the drop in the number of packs. Because this is not stated in E, it is wrong.